achate

From Middle English achate, agaten, from Old French acate, agate.

• IPA^(key): /ˈæk.ət/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

achate (plural achates)

1. (obsolete) An agate.
   • 1643 November 22 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for November 12 1643]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

     Two vasas of berill , 2 of achate , whereof one is esteemed for its bignesse , colour , and carving imboss'd

   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     These following bodies do not draw: smaragd, achates, corneolus, pearl, jaspis, chalcedonius, alabaster, porphyry, coral, marble, touchstone, haematites, or bloodstone […]

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

• chaeta, chæta

achātē

1. ablative/vocative singular of achātēs

From Old French achat (“purchase”). See cates.

achate (plural achates)

1. Purchase; bargaining.
2. Purchases; provisions bought for a household, cates.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     The kitchin Clerke, that hight Digestion, / Did order all th’Achates in seemely wise, / And set them forth, as well he could deuise.

achate

1. inflection of achatar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

achate

1. inflection of achatar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative