Named for fingernails — the Greeks saw the layered bands of onyx as resembling the translucent layers of a human nail.
A semiprecious gemstone consisting of banded chalcedony, typically with alternating layers of black and white.
From Greek onyx meaning fingernail or claw, because the stone's translucent bands were thought to resemble the layers of a human fingernail Key roots: *h₃nogʰ- (Proto-Indo-European: "nail, claw").
Onyx is named after fingernails. The ancient Greeks thought the stone's translucent, layered bands resembled the layers of a human fingernail. According to myth, Cupid cut Venus's divine fingernails while she slept, and the clippings fell into the river Indus, where they turned to onyx — because divine nails cannot perish.