Forms: 4 azer, 4–5 asur(e, 5 aser(e, aserre, 6 asour, aisur, 7 azur, 5– azure. [a. OF. azur, asur (11th c.), cogn. with Pr., OSp. azur, Pg., Sp. azul, It. azzurro, azzuolo, med.L. azura, azzurum, azolum, adaptations of Arabic (al-)lazward, a. Pers. lājward, lāzhward, lapis lazuli, blue color. The initial l is absent in the Romance langs., apparently having been dropped along with Arabic article al-, or as if it were the article l’. It remains in med.Gr. λαζούριον, and med.L. lazurius, lazur, lazulus, lapis lazuli, literary forms taken directly from oriental authors or sources.]
1. The precious stone lapis lazuli.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1411. Al in asure & ynde enaumayld. Ibid., 1457. Bassynes ful bryȝt of brende golde clere, Enaumaylde with azer.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1321. A broche of golde and asure.
c. 1435. Torr. Portugal, 351. Ther gold and sylvyr wase spred, And asur that wase blewe.
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fooles (1570), 169. This tombe was … set with precious stone, Alayde with asour.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 65. Richly gilded, and adorned with Azure, and Mosaicke workmanship.
1783. W. F. Martyn, Geog. Mag., I. 131. About Tauris, the mineral azure is also found.
2. A bright blue pigment or dye; ellipt. a fabric dyed of this color. A. of Almayne: ? Prussian blue.
(Ultramarine is made from powdered lapis lazuli.)
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 330. Youre figure Before me stante Cloothed in Asure.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. ii. And gan forthwith with golde and asure paint.
1502. Arnold, Chron., 169. Make an hole in a tree … doo in ye hole good asure of almayne … and the frute shalbe blew colour.
1552. Act 5–6 Edw. VI., vi. § 11. All broad Plunkets, Azures, Blewes and other coloured Cloth.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 484. Cæruleum or Azur, is a certaine sandy grit or pouder.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 874. The darkest-coloured smalts, known as King’s-blue or azure.
3. Her. The blue color in coats of arms, represented in engraving by horizontal lines.
c. 1330. Sire Degarré, 995. With the scheld of asur, And thre bor heuedes ther in.
1429. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 142. Thre flour-de-lys of gold, The fielde of asure.
1610. Gwillim, Heraldry, I. iii. (1660), 19. Blew … in Blazon is termed Azure.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Azure … signifies the blue colour in the coats of arms of all persons under the degree of a baron.
1838. Penny Cycl., XII. 143/2.
4. The clear blue color of the unclouded sky, or of the sea reflecting it. (Originally, the deep intense blue of more southern latitudes.)
1481. Caxton, Myrr., II. viii. 81. The colour of Asure lyke unto the heuen whan it is pure and clere.
1656. Cowley, Davideis, II. Wks. I. 354. He cuts out a Silk Mantle from the Skies, Where the most sprightly Azure pleas’d the Eyes.
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 408. Celestial azure brightning in her eyes.
1823. Byron, Island, III. iii. The vast and sullen swell Of ocean’s alpine azure.
5. The unclouded vault of heaven.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 297. Not like those steps On Heavens Azure.
1738. Glover, Leonidas, III. 14. Mingling its majestic front With heav’ns bright azure.
1871. Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 10. Above, the crystal azure, perfect, pale.
b. fig. 1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. ix. Borne aloft into the azure of Eternity.
1874. Tyndall, Addr. Brit. Assoc., 19 Aug., 72. After you and I, like streaks of morning cloud, shall have melted into the infinite azure of the past.
B. adj. 1. Her. Blue.
a. 1450. Syr Eglamore, 1030. He bare, Aserre, a grype of golde.
1650[?]. Don Bellianis, 16. A Knight cloathed in an azure armour.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 181. Sir Lancelot’s azure lions, crowned with gold.
2. Colored like the unclouded sky; orig. of a deep intense blue, now usually of a soft clear bright blue, as is the sky of our more northern latitudes; sky-colored, cerulean.
c. 1505. Dunbar, Twa Luves, xi. The hevinly aisur skyis licht.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 419. Her azure veins, her alabaster skin.
a. 1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 5. No Beast hath any fine Azure, or Carnation, or Green Haire.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Odes (1765), 110. The little halcyon’s azure plume Was never half so blue.
1813. Scott, Triermain, II. xxvii. Slow the dark-fring’d eyelids fall, Curtaining the azure ball.
1819. Shelley, Ros. & Helen, 957. It was the azure time of June.
b. (Used, like L. cæruleus, as an epithet of sea- and river-deities and things belonging to them.)
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 560. High o’er the Main in wat’ry Pomp he rides His azure Carr.
1725. Pope, Odyss., V. 426. An azure sister of the main.
3. a. fig. Like the unclouded sky; clear, cloudless.
1827. Carlyle, Misc., I. 36. Is not Klopstock, with … his azure purity … a man of taste?
1841. Brewster, Mart. Sci., II. iv. (1856), 146. Those azure moments when the clouds broke from his mind.
b. transf. in Jewellery (see quot.)
1865. H. Emanuel, Diamonds & Prec. Stones, 218. Sometimes, however, stones which are set open, or, to use the technical term, ‘azur,’ have the interior of the setting enamelled or painted, to throw a tint of colour into the gem.
C. Comb., as azure-bice (= bice), -blue, -circled; azure-colo(u)red, -eyed, -veined; azure-spar, lazulite, azure-stone, the lapis lazuli, or lazulite.
a. 1500. E. E. Misc. (1855), 78. Iff thou wylt preve asure bice, if hit be good or badde.
1859. W. Coleman, Woodlands (1862), 113. The pretty Azure-blue butterfly (Polyommatus Argiolus).
1879. Tennyson, Lover’s T., 29. High over all the azure-circled earth.
1617. Wardens’ Acc., in Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 426. Azure couloured cloathes for the poore men’s gownes.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, II. 539. Minerva azure-eyed advanced.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 417. The Azure, stone is most commonly in the gold mynes.
