Agatoid

a variegated chalcedony showing curved, colored bands or other markings.
a playing marble made of this substance, or of gl-ss in imitation of it.
printing. a 5½-point type of a size between pearl and nonpareil.
compare (def 5).
noun
an impure microcrystalline form of quartz consisting of a variegated, usually banded chalcedony, used as a gemstone and in making pestles and mortars, burnishers, and polishers. formula: sio2
a playing marble of this quartz or resembling it
(printing, us & canadian) also called ruby. (formerly) a size of printer’s type approximately equal to 51/2 point
adverb
(northern english, dialect) on the way
noun
james (evershed). 1877–1947, british theatre critic; drama critic for the sunday times (1923–47) and author of a nine-volume diary ego (1935–49)
n.

1560s, from middle french agathe (16c.), from latin achates, from greek akhates, the name of a river in sicily where the stones were found (pliny). but the river could as easily be named for the stone.

the earlier english form of the word, achate (early 13c.), was directly from latin. figurative sense of “a diminutive person” (c.1600) is from the now-obsolete meaning “small figures cut in agates for seals,” preserved in typographer’s agate (1838), the u.s. name of the 5.5-point font called in great britain ruby. meaning “toy marble made of gl-ss resembling agate” is from 1843 (colloquially called an aggie).
agate
(āg’ĭt)
a type of very fine-grained quartz found in various colors that are arranged in bands or in cloudy patterns. the bands form when water rich with silica enters empty sp-ces in rock, after which the silica comes out of solution and forms crystals, gradually filling the sp-ces from the outside inward. the different colors are the result of various impurities in the water.

(heb. shebo), a precious stone in the breast-plate of the high priest (ex. 28:19; 39:12), the second in the third row. this may be the agate properly so called, a semi-transparent crystallized quartz, probably brought from sheba, whence its name. in isa. 54:12 and ezek. 27:16, this word is the rendering of the hebrew cadcod, which means “ruddy,” and denotes a variety of minutely crystalline silica more or less in bands of different tints. this word is from the greek name of a stone found in the river achates in sicily.