different between lapidary vs trenchant

English

Etymology

From Old French lapidaire, from Latin lapid?rius (“of stones”) (later used as a noun ‘stone-cutter’), from lapis (“stone”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?læp?d??i/

Noun

lapidary (plural lapidaries)

1. A person who cuts, polishes, engraves, or deals in gems.
   • 2013, Peter G. Read,Gemmology, Elsevier, p.289

     In the very early days of gemstone fashioning, a polisher or lapidary would cut and polish both diamonds and other gemstones.

2. An expert in gems or precious stones; a connoisseur of lapidary work.
3. (archaic) A treatise on precious stones.

Derived terms

• lapidarian
• lapidary's lathe
• lapidary's mill
• lapidary's wheel

Adjective

lapidary (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to gems and precious stones, or the art of working them.
2. Suitable for inscriptions; efficient, stately, concise; embodying the refinement and precision characteristic of stone-cutting.
   • 2000, Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Knopf/HarperCollins, p. 71

     The sole truth was that supplied by mathematics or by such lapidary propositions as “What's done cannot be undone,” which was irrefutably correct.

English

Alternative forms

• trenchaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenchant, the present participle of trenchier (“to cut”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t??n??nt/

Adjective

trenchant (comparative more trenchant, superlative most trenchant)

1. (obsolete) Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.
   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1:

     The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty, / For want of fighting was grown rusty, / And ate into itself, for lack / Of somebody to hew and hack.

2. (figuratively) Keen; biting; vigorously articulate and effective; severe.
   • 2011, Jay A. Gertzman, Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 1920-1940

     His trenchant criticisms of the Church's repression […] include a discussion of the considerable 1938 success of the fledgling NODL in getting magazines removed from various points of sale.

Translations

Middle French

Etymology

Old French trenchant.

Noun

trenchant m or f (plural trenchans)

1. sharp

Descendants

• French: tranchant

Old French

Adjective

trenchant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular trenchant or trenchante)

1. sharp; razor sharp

Declension

Verb

trenchant

1. present participle of trenchier