Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 May 16

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May 16

Ashtamangala

I'm trying to find the traditional Chinese and Japanese names (possibly with hanzi and kanji) of the eight Buddhist symbols of Ashtamangala. I guess thay could be added to our article as well. Thank you! --87.20.54.149 (talk) 09:12, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

Latin precious stones

wikt:Category:Latin terms with uncertain meaning has a bunch of "unknown precious stones." Where'd we find these words? One old book about gems? Temerarius (talk) 20:02, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

I haven't looked for the sources for the words in that category specifically, but for Latin words denoting gemstones book 37 of Pliny's Natural History and book 16 of Isidore's Etymologiae are the best sources I can think of. I'm fairly sure that not all the stones named in those two works are identifiable with confidence in modern terms. Deor (talk) 20:37, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

I'll add that many, if not all, of the gemstone entries in that Wiktionary category give Lewis and Short's dictionary as a reference. If you want to know where in ancient works a particular word occurs, you can simply click on the appropriate link in the "References" section of the Wiktionary page, and the L&S entry will cite where the word is attested. Deor (talk) 21:55, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

Off the top of my head, the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin translation of the Hebrew/Greek bible) has many gem names, particularly in the Book of Revelation.--Verbarson (talk) 08:05, 22 May 2021 (UTC)