pyropus

pyropus (plural pyropuses)

1. Obsolete form of pyrope (“type of garnet”).

From Ancient Greek πυρωπός (purōpós, “fire-colored”), from πῦρ (pûr, “fire”) +‎ ὤψ (ṓps, “eye”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /pyˈroː.pus/, [pʏˈroːpʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /piˈro.pus/, [piˈrɔːpus]

pyrōpus m (genitive pyrōpī); second declension

1. an alloy of copper and gold
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 34.94:

     in cyprio [coronarium et regulare est utrumque ductile] coronarium tenuatur in lamnas, taurorumque felle tinctum speciem auri in coronis histrionum praebet, idemque in uncias additis auri scripulis senis praetenui pyropi brattea ignescit.

     In Cyprian copper we have the kind known as "coronarium," and that called "regulare," both of them ductile. The former is made into thin leaves, and, after being coloured with ox-gall, is used for what has all the appearance of gilding on the coronets worn upon the stage. The same substance, if mixed with gold, in the proportion of six scruples of gold to the ounce, and reduced into thin plates, acquires a fiery red colour, and is termed "pyropus."—John Bostock, The Natural History, London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Perseus

2. (Late Latin) pyrope, garnet, precious red stone

Second-declension noun.

• “pyropus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• pyropus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.