adamant

Look up adamant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Adamant and similar words are used to refer to any especially hard substance, whether composed of diamond, some other gemstone, or some type of metal. Both adamant and diamond derive from the Greek word αδαμαστος (adamastos), meaning "untameable". Adamantite and adamantium (a metallic name derived from the Neo-Latin ending -ium) are also common variants.

Adamantine has, throughout ancient history, referred to anything that was made of a very hard material. Virgil describes Tartarus as having a screeching gate protected by columns of solid adamantine (Aeneid book VI). Later, by the Middle Ages, the term came to refer to diamond, as it was the hardest material then known, and remains the hardest non-synthetic material known.

It was in the Middle Ages, too, that adamantine hardness and the lodestone's magnetic properties became confused and combined, leading to an alternate definition in which "adamant" means magnet, falsely derived from the Latin adamare, which means to love or be attached to.^[1] Another connection was the belief that adamant (the diamond definition) could block the effects of a magnet. This was addressed in chapter III of Pseudodoxia Epidemica, for instance.

Since the word diamond is now used for the hardest gemstone, the increasingly archaic term "adamant" has a mostly poetic or figurative use. In that capacity, the name is frequently used in popular media and fiction to refer to a very hard substance.

Adamant and adamantine in mythology

• In Greek Mythology, the Titan Cronus castrated his father Uranus using an adamant sickle. An adamantine sickle or sword was also used by the hero Perseus to decapitate the Gorgon Medusa while she slept.
• In the Greek Tragedy, Prometheus Bound translated by G. M. Cookson, Hephaestus is to bind Prometheus "to the jagged rocks in adamantine bonds infrangible."
• In the King James Version of the Bible the word adamant is also used in several verses, including:

  "As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they [be] a rebellious house." (Ezekiel 3:9) Other, later translations substitute the word diamond for adamant.

• In John Milton's Paradise Lost (Book 1), Satan is hurled "to bottomless perdition, there to dwell in adamantine chains and penal fire". Later (Book 6), Satan's shield is described as "of tenfold adamant," and the armor worn by the angels is described as "adamantine."^[2]
• In some versions of the Alexander Romance, Alexander the Great builds walls of Adamantine, the Gates of Alexander, to keep the giants Gog and Magog from pillaging the peaceful southern lands.

In fiction and popular culture

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• Jack London's, White Fang: Part IV: The Superior Gods: Chapter 6: The Love-Master - "the fibre of him had become tough and knotty; when the warp and the woof of him had made of him an adamantine texture, harsh and unyielding;"
• In John Donne's Holy Sonnet I he states in line 14, "And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart".
• In the Medieval epic poem The Faerie Queene, Sir Artagel's sword is made of Adamant.
• In the travels of John Mandeville, he makes mention of a certain material upon which diamonds grow on his travels to India.
• In Mary Shelley's novella Mathilda, the author writes "It required hands stronger than mine; stronger I do believe than any human force to break the thick, adamantine chain that has bound me".
• In the 1950s movie Forbidden Planet the character 'Edward Morbius' refers to structures that the 'Krell Civilization' created that were made of 'Adamantine Steel'.
• In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Helena says to Demetrius, "You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant!".
• In the Games Workshop game universe of Warhammer 40,000, adamantium used in the power armour and terminator suits of the Space Marines.
• In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings it is said in the second verse of Bilbo's Song of Eärendil, regarding the appearance of Eärendil; "Of adamant his helmet tall". At the crowning of King Elessar, it is said that his crown "was adorned with jewels of adamant". Also, Nenya, one of the Three Rings of Power, was described as the Ring of Adamant, once again the Dark Tower Barad-dûr is described as being a tower of adamant crowned with iron.
• In the Marvel Comics' universe, adamantium is a metal alloy which, once forged, is effectively indestructible. The metal is costly to produce and exceptionally rare. It is typically portrayed within Marvel comic books as used to create weaponry such as bullets used by various covert agencies, a triangular shield used by the vigilante known as Battlestar, and the outer skin of some of the robotic bodies of the android Ultron. It is most famously known for being bonded to the skeleton and bone claws of the X-Men character Wolverine.
• Adiamante is an artificial material in the eponymous 1996 science fiction novel by L. E. Modesitt, Jr., used for the hulls of military spacecraft.
• In the Dungeons & Dragons game universe, adamantite is an ultra-hard, expensive, rare metal found only in meteorites and veins in magical areas, used to fashion high-quality weapons and armor.
• In R. A. Salvatore's Dark Elf books (based on the Dungeons & Dragons universe), adamantite is the preferred material for drow weaponry.
• In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Lord Asriel constructs an "adamant" fortress.
• In Mohandas K. Gandhi's autobiography, he reflects on the beauty of compromise in deciding not to fight for the right to wear a turban in the Supreme Court of South Africa. He states that "truth is hard as adamant and tender as a blossom".
• In Princess Ida, by Gilbert and Sullivan, the hardnosed princess's castle is called Castle Adamant.
• In the MMORPG RuneScape, adamant is a green colored metal smelted from one part adamantite ore and six parts coal. It is the second strongest metal in the free version of the game and is the second strongest metal that can be forged and smithed by players in both the free and member version. Adamantite is an ore found in various mining locations in small quantities. Once an adamant bars is smelted, it can be smithed to make armor and weapons.
• In Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (Part III), the base of the fictitious flying island of Laputa is made of Adamant.
• In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer's Aunt's resolve becomes "adamantine in its firmness".
• In Dwarf Fortress, a simulator game, adamantine is the rarest and most valuable mineral in existence. It can be used to forge the sharpest of weapons and strongest of armors. Unlike its common green in other accounts, adamantine in Dwarf Fortress is a very bright blue. It is nearly weightless, though this has caused improvements to the game's physics modelling to cripple adamantine warhammers and other blunt weaponry. Adamantine is also a trap for the proud. Dwarves following an adamantine vein will eventually dig too deep and unleash what's euphemistically called "Hidden fun stuff."
• In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, there is an obtainable item called the 'Adamant Orb' which raises the dragon and steel type attacks of Dialga. The item looks more like a diamond gemstone rather than metal.
• In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, Adamantite is gathered from fairly uncommon veins in Outland, and used for productions of various weapons and armor, both uncommon, rare and epic.
• In the MMORPG, Maplestory, adamantium ore can be obtained by killing various monsters and be made into a bar of adamantium to upgrade weapons and armours into stronger substitutes
• In the MMORPG, Lineage II, adamantine is a rare material required to craft the highest grade weapons on game, Icarus and Dynasty weapons.
• In Kingdom Hearts, one of the shields you can equip to Goofy is called the "Adamant Shield"
• Final Fantasy also features armor made of adamant on occasion. In the fifth installment specifically it is a material from 'another world' able to contain great amounts of energy.
• In Ratchet & Clank, an armor is featured, and it is made of Adamantine - a metal that was to be said "the hardest in the galaxy".
• In the RPG expansion The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal, adamantite is a usable substance that can be acquired, and forged (not by the player) into a protective armor.
• In the role playing game Exalted, adamant is a rare magical material used in some artifacts.
• In the Tales of Symphonia Game, the Eternal Ring that forges Dirk for Lloyd is made of Adamantine and sacred wood.
• In Patapon 2, you can use Adamantine from your Altar or inventory. This material can be forged and is similar to mithril.
• In the fantasy book series Fablehaven, Adamant is a very strong and light weight metal that has been magically enchanted.
• In the fiction book The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Adamant is among various goods inside of an Egyptian tomb on display in the New York Museum of Natural History.
• In Meredith Ann Pierce's Darkangel Trilogy, the blade Adamantine was forged by the Ancients and is the only weapon that can kill a darkangel.
• In the Inuyasha dub the name Adamant Barrage is given to an attack that shoots diamonds at the opponent using the Tetsusaiga, the sword used by the title character. In the episode The Demon Protector of the Sacred Jewel Shard, a demon named Hosenki is covered in an armor made up of what is called adamantite. Kagome asks Myoga if he means diamond, but he doesn't know what she is talking about.
• In the videogame series Harvest Moon (series), an ore and item upgrade level is named 'Adamantite'. It is usually the highest-level upgrade.
• In the game Terraria, there are adamantite bars that can be made (on a Mythril anvil) in to armor, drills, and other things.
• In the short story "Creatures of the Light." By Sophie Wenzel Ellis in Astounding Stories of Super Science, February 1930 it was referred to as; "Yet, for all his experience with hero worshippers to put an adamantine crust on his sensibilities, he grew warm-eared under the gaze of these two strangers"

See also

• aggregated diamond nanorods, ultrahard, nanocrystalline form of diamond
• Adamant, Vermont, a village in Washington County, Vermont, USA
• adamantane, a bulky hydrocarbon
• adamant, a noun defined at Wiktionary
• adamantine, an adjective defined at Wiktionary
• adamantine, a real mineral
• adamantium, a fictional substance in the Marvel Universe
• mithril, a strong, silvery fictional metal from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
• unobtanium, a name given to exotic, fictional materials used in science fiction

References

1. ^ Webster's dictionary definition of adamant, 1828 and 1913 editions
2. ^ John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book Six, lines 255 and 542 (1667). (see text from Project Gutenberg)