Editing Adamant (section)

{{short description|Mythological hardest substance}}
{{For|other uses of adamant and similar terms|Adamant (disambiguation)}}
{{Wiktionary}}
'''Adamant''' in [[classical mythology]] is an archaic form of [[diamond]]. In fact, the English word ''diamond'' is ultimately derived from ''adamas'', via [[Late Latin]] {{lang|la|diamas}} and [[Old French]] {{lang|fro|diamant}}. In ancient Greek {{lang|grc|[[wikt:ἀδάμας|ἀδάμας]]}} ({{Transliteration|grc|adamas}}), genitive {{lang|grc|ἀδάμαντος}} ({{Transliteration|grc|adamantos}}), literally 'unconquerable, untameable'. In those days, the qualities of hard metal (probably [[steel]]) were attributed to it, and ''adamant'' became an independent concept as a result.

In the Middle Ages adamant also became confused with the magnetic rock [[lodestone]], and a [[folk etymology]] connected it with the Latin {{lang|la|adamare}}, 'to love or be attached to'.<ref>[http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&word=adamant&resource=Webster%27s&quicksearch=on Webster's dictionary definition of ''adamant''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620084555/http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&word=adamant&resource=Webster%27s&quicksearch=on |date=June 20, 2010 }}, 1828 and 1913 editions</ref> 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 contemporary word ''diamond'' is now used for the hardest gemstone, the increasingly archaic noun ''adamant'' has been reduced to mostly [[poetry|poetic]] or [[anachronistic]] use. In that capacity, the name, and various derivatives of it, are frequently used in modern media to refer to a variety of fictional substances.