'Opal' traveled the ancient trade routes from Sanskrit 'upala' (precious stone) through Greek to Latin.
A gemstone displaying shifting colors caused by the diffraction of light within its internal structure.
From Latin 'opalus' (opal, a precious gemstone), borrowed from Greek 'opállios,' which was in turn borrowed from Sanskrit 'úpala' (उपल, precious stone, gem, jewel). The Sanskrit word is composed of 'upa-' (near, toward — a directional prefix from PIE *upo, up, under, over) + 'ala' (connected to Sanskrit 'al-' meaning to adorn or to be sufficient — or possibly related to the root for 'shining, glowing'). The ancient gem trade carried
The Romans considered the opal the most precious of all gemstones — Pliny the Elder wrote that it contains the fire of the ruby, the sea-green of the emerald, and the purple of the amethyst. The superstition that opals are unlucky arose only in the 19th century, possibly from Sir Walter Scott's novel 'Anne of Geierstein' (1829), in which an enchanted opal brings disaster. Australia produces about 95% of the world