[f. TOAD sb. + STONE.] A name (rendering Gr. and L. batrachītēs, or med.L. bufonītēs, crapodīnus, F. crapaudine (13th c.): cf. Ger. krötenstein), formerly applied to various stones or stone-like objects, likened to a toad in color or shape, or supposed to be produced by a toad; often credited with alexipharmic or therapeutic virtues, and worn as jewels or amulets, or set in rings. These, though of various origin, were all considered to be forms or species of the same ‘stone,’ the most valued kind of which was fabled to be found in the head of the toad, a belief to which many allusions occur in literature: cf. TOAD sb. 1 δ, quot. 1600.
1558. Gifts to Q. Eliz., in Nichols, Progr., II. 539. A iewell containing a Crapon or Toade stone set in golde.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, II. v. His saffron iewell, with the toade-stone in ’t.
1645. Evelyn, Diary, 6 May. A ring … which seemed set with a dull, darke stone, a little swelling out, like what we call (tho’ untruly) a toadstone.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 63. As for that … styled a Toadstone; this is properly a tooth of the Fish called Lupus marinus, as hath been made evident to the Royal Society by … Dr. Merit.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 128. By my Bufonites or Toad-stone, I intend not that shining polish’d stone,… but a certain reddish liver-colour’d real stone.
1679. Lond. Gaz., No. 1435/4. One gold Ring with a large counterfeited Toad stone.
1696. Phil. Trans., XIX. 199. These convex osseous Tubercules … are of the same kind with our English Bufonites or Toadstones.
1704. Collect. Voy. (Churchill), III. 658/1. The Toad-stone is found in the Head of a certain kind of Toads.
1776. Pennant, Brit. Zool., III. 15. It was distinguished by the name of the Reptile, and called the Toad-Stone, Bufonites, Crapaudine, Krottenstein; but all its fancied powers vanished on the discovery of its being nothing but the fossil tooth of the sea-wolf.
1812. Scott, Lett. to Joanna Baillie, 4 April, in Lockhart. A toadstone—a celebrated amulet…. It was sovereign for protecting new-born children and their mothers from the power of the fairies, and has been repeatedly borrowed from my mother, on account of this virtue.
1870. Murray’s Handbk. E. Counties, 291. At the feet [of an image of the Virgin] was a toadstone, indicating her victory over all evil and uncleanness.
attrib. 1855. trans. Labarte’s Arts Mid. Ages, xxvi. Toadstone ring.
1877. W. Jones, Finger-ring, 156. A toadstone ring (the fossil palatal tooth or a species of Ray) was supposed to protect new-born children and their mothers from the power of the fairies.
