This content was first published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review no. 15 in 2022. The information provided here is therefore current as of the original publication date.
Παντοαδαμας: Pantoadamàs.
From the Greek Pantòs (= All) and Adamas (= Diamond).
You will say: either the Cricketer is missing the few synapses of which he has, or he is showing off a culture that he does not have (what culture can ever have primitive Crickets, settled up in the mountains?). The second answer is the correct one! For, if you search all the dictionaries – be they paper or digital – you will never find such an entry. It is a creation from his (sick) gray cells.
But let’s go in order. First of all: why “All Diamond”? Because Diamonds have more titles than the Madonna – no, not the singer, but Mary, the Holy Mother of Jesus Christ – and more than Allah, the God of Islam. Let’s start from the second one: the Beautiful Names of Allah (in Arabic asmā’ llāhi al-ḥusnā) are 99 and, in the mystical confraternities (the Sufis) they discuss about the 100th name, called the Great Name, coming with very sacred values. It is written: «To Allah the most beautiful names belong. So invoke Him through them» (Koran, VII: 180). And what about Our Lady? The attributes used in the Christian cult of Mary are 28 more. Including ancient and local Marian titles as well as titles related to dogmas, appearances, miraculous icons and iconography, amount to 127. In addition to the most famous Regina Apostolorum, Stella Maris, Turris Eburnea, Our Lady of Lourdes and Comforter of the Afflicted, there are also Our Lady of Ghiaie di Bonate, of the Hens, of the Milk, and a Panaghia Blachernitissa, protector of the Byzantine Empire.
How about the denominations, the names, the titles, the attributes of Diamonds? Well, the 7.9 billion and more humans that are crowding Planet A (because Planet B is located somewhere amidst 30% of those one hundred billion stars of each of the one hundred billion galaxies forming the Universe, which may have – according to astrophysicists – a planetary system), speak 6.000–7.000 different languages. There are about 200 official languages in the 208 sovereign states around the world. Now, do we have to take into account the Diamond denominations in the six/seven thousand languages or in just 200? Shall we do a Google search and list them in alphabetical order? You also try. A summary of the most striking ones is given below. Start from Ⓐ, with the now-classic ancient Greek Adamas (the invincible, the indomitable, the inflexible, the indestructible) and the classical Latin derivative Adamas-Adamantem, to move on to the Ⓓ of the late Latin Diamas-Diamantem. Hence in a cascade, all the derivatives in the so-called Indo-European languages having as root “Diam” and as suffix a variant of “antem”, or else “mas” and its modification as a constant, and a variation of “Ada” as a variable. Let’s get to work, with patience, possibly filling in the blanks (Ⓙ, Ⓜ, Ⓠ, Ⓡ, Ⓤ, Ⓦ, Ⓧ, Ⓨ) later.
Ⓐ
Adamas; Adamand (Armenian); Almas (Arabic); Almaz (Azeri, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Mongolian, Russian, etc.); Alimazi (Amarican); Almos (Tajik) etc.
Ⓑ
Berlian (Indonesian, Malay); Brilyante (Filipino); Brilianti (Georgian).
BEST FRIEND: «Diamond are a girl’s best friend». Advertising motto held by the poor dear Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962), to whom it brought a terrible misfortune, given the fate she met, meschinedda. It survived her for a few decades, but like her it ended up in the graveyard and can no longer be resuscitated, nowadays, given its definitely sexist overtones, according to the new canons of political correctness.
BLESSED: please refer to the “Counter-Gemology” column in No. 14 /2022 of this Review.
Ⓒ
CARBON-FREE (zero carbon dioxide emissions): just like that! In No. 12/2021 of IGR – Italian Gemological Review, at pages 66 and 67, I said that «to state categorically that synthetic diamonds are ethical, eco-compatible, sustainable and carbon-free or carbon-neutral and failing at the same time to provide any independently and impartially certified evidence of what is stated, does not automatically qualify them as such». I have given a wide and detailed explanation of why. Repeating it would not be eco-compatible and would result in a waste of paper…
CARBON-NEUTRAL (zero climate impact): same as above.
CHAMELEON: diamond exhibiting a very unusual and rare color phenomenon, to be considered as a masterpiece of Mother Nature. This is a color change when exposed to light after being left in the dark. Example: an olive-green stone that, when removed from a dark place, shows an intense yellow tint before returning to its original olive-green color.
Ⓓ
Root: Diam, Suffix: -ante -ant -antea -ànti -anti -ent -ond. In large numbers; Daoimean (Gaelic); Daiyamondo (Japanese); Daiamonde (Korean); Deimantas (Lithuanian); Demantur (Icelandic); Diemwnt (Welsh); Dimants (Latvian).
DEMOCRATIC: a 24 kt fakery. Please refer to IGR no. 13. Needless to repeat.
Ⓔ
Elmas (Turkish).
ETHICAL: as Green and whatever follows. See Ⓖ, Green and Greenwashing. An awful doubt pierces my mind: why do we now speak only of Ethicality (abstract and vague term, see the vocabulary of the English language) and Ethical, referring to objects (e.g. Ethical Diamond), and no longer of Honesty (clearly expressed, semantically) and Honest, referring to a person? Yet it is very easy to determine whether someone’s actions are honest or not. It would be enough to ask the question: what I am saying/doing to others, is it what I would like others to say/do to me? Try to apply this principle to Ethics and Ethicality (vocabulary in hand) and let me know the result. In the meantime, go to Ⓣ for True.
ECO-COMPATIBLE: see Ⓒ, Carbon-Free.
ECOLOGICAL: same as above.
ECO-FRIENDLY: same as above.
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY: please always make reference to the Diamond described under sections Ⓛ and Ⓢ, possessing the requirements mentioned in sections Ⓒ, Ⓔ, Ⓖ and Ⓢ. Never refer to section Ⓝ, anyway. The reason why? It’s quite easy: whatever originates from a natural process is always repulsively filthy, appearing as much unpleasant as it can be, apart from being a pollutant, useless to say. Try to figure out yourselves as being just delivered (you are dirty with blood and mucus and scream like beasts) and think at the droppings that your body has produced and has been producing in your lifetime. What is formed in a laboratory, on the other hand, is always beautiful, clean, non-polluting, to be short… environmentally friendly.
Ⓕ
FOREVER: «A diamond is forever». A famous commercial launched by the De Beers team that went viral during the last three decades of the last century. A paradigm of indissoluble bonds that instead have resulted in plenty of disasters reaching first the desks of matrimonial lawyers (yes, they are the ones who actually benefited from this wedding campaign!) and then the courtrooms. A planetary pandemic. That is why only the people of LifeGem (see Ⓛ) are still using this catchphrase, or its synonyms.
Ⓖ
Gyémánt (Hungarian); Göwher (Turkmen).
GREEN: Green. Nothing to do with the Natural Green fancy color Diamond, or the Synthetic matching the same color. Green here is understood as something that can be associated to the Green Revolution and Ecological Transition. Whatever is concerned, in a broader sense, with Sustainable Agriculture, Circular Economy, Energy Transition, Sustainable Mobility, Energy Efficiency, Water Resources, Pollution, Environmental Impact. And therefore resulting to be Ecological, Eco-Compatible. And also, not to leave us wanting, whatever is related to Eco-Compatible diamonds (see Ⓔ), Ecological (see Ⓔ), Sustainable (see Ⓢ). A direct consequence of the unbridled rush to cloak in Green everything even what is not Green. This is Greenwashing, variously defined as:
- facade ecologism;
- facade environmentalism;
- communication or marketing strategy pursued by companies, institutions, entities, which present their activities as environmentally sustainable, trying to conceal their negative environmental impact.
What is the purpose? Well, to ride the inexorably advancing new green wave; to make one’s products more attractive; to influence consumers’ purchasing choices; to damage the commercial competitiveness of the most compliant companies. All, of course, to make cash. Are there companies indicted for greenwashing and taken to court? Oh yes: Wilkinson, Colgate, Ferrarelle, San Benedetto, Coca-Cola, Walmart, Volkswagen, ENI, just to name the most popular ones. And what about the manufacturers and sellers of Ecological/Eco-Compatible/Eco-Friendly/Sustainable/Ethical Diamonds? Not a peep, apart from our own (see IGR No. 12 and No. 13). Dead silence. Trade Associations, Regulatory Authorities, Institutions, if you are there please clap like in séances, s’il vous plaît!
Ⓗ
Hcein (Burmese); Heera (Hindi); Hira (Bengali, Nepali, Punjabi).
Ⓘ
Idayimant (Zulu).
INVINCIBLE; Indomitable; Inflexible; Indestructible: all attributes etymologically related to the term Adamas;
I DO a new advertising slogan, replacing the now obsolete/compromised «A Diamond is a girl’s best friend» (see Ⓑ, Best Friend) and «A Diamond is forever» (see Ⓕ, Forever). Understood as «a most solemn promise to oneself to achieve one’s goals, to stand alone and to fight for one’s convictions, for the next generation». Plain and simple from the De Beers repertoire to be dedicated to their jewelry mounted with De Beers or De Beers Forevermark Lab-Grown Diamonds. Elì, Elì, lemà sabachtani? (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?). I want to die…
Ⓚ
Kim cu’o’ngO (Vietnamese).
Ⓛ
LAB-GROWN: a term that, in Italian, sounds very much homemade, as if it were a kind of greenhouse tomato. How much cooler in Italy is when the term lab-grown is said in English! As a matter of fact, this is how it is presented in this country by those who are proposing it. Although, according to the UNI 11828:2021 (Ente Italiano di Normazione) standard in force in Italy, «only Diamante Sintetico as the translation of Synthetic Diamond should be used». Futher, there are those who promoted it as: «Lab-Grown Diamond: it is a Natural Diamond Magnified in the Laboratory but it is not a Synthetic Stone. It is a Real, Natural Diamond, but made using less water and energy». In Cricketland, for such a scam, there is a week’s of confinement in a cage displayed on day and night in Cricket Square in Cricket City, on bread and water. Or forced hospitalization in CCST (Compulsory Cricket Sanitary Treatment).
LAB-CREATED: where Creating means, in both Italian and English, «to produce from nothing», «to supply existence». A Diamond Produced from Nothing? Do people who use this term, apart from infringing the UNI Standard (see above) realize that they are competing with God? Unless one wants to trace the origin of such a Diamond to the Black Holes of Hawking. However, in that case: actually created how, by whom? Nihil ex nihilo (nothing from nothing), I recall. Even cosmologist Stephen Hawking, late in his life, had second thoughts about…
LAB-DIAMOND: The same points made for Lab-Grown are applicable. Here at least, however, we have stepped down to Planet Earth again, feet on the ground.
LIFEGEM: ddiamonds produced by the firm of the same name (Chicago, Illinois, USA, with offices in Europe as well), which since 2001 has been in charge of converting the ashes of the beloved departed into sizes ranging from 0.10 to 0.99 ct, ranging in color from red, yellow, green, blue and colorless. Purity from VVS to Pique. Round Brilliant, Princess, Radiant cuts, as you choose. Reasonable prices, according to them. There is also LifeGem Family Pricing Plan (family discounts). You are advised to compare and compulse the (all-inclusive) price lists of regular funeral homes should you consider making cuts on coffin, morticians, flowers, hearse, religious or secular service, niche/grave, headstone, perpetual lamp and all.
LIGHTBOX LAB-GROWN DIAMOND JEWELRY: material (see Ⓛ, Lab-Grown) produced and marketed by De Beers. You will hear about it a lot. The brand will become a synonym for one product, in the present case, Synthetic Diamonds. As it is for Coca-Cola, or Pepsi (for beverages), or once Kodak (for cameras).
Ⓝ
NATURAL: it is so named (incredible enough) a Diamond that is an unrepeatable product of Mother Nature, as it was generated by an unrepeatable natural geological process (of magmatic segregation, i.e., the effects of cooling of the Earth’s crust, in the early stages of the formation of Planet Earth, in a geological age between 800 and 1,800 million years ago), in the presence in the environment of special temperature conditions of (1,100–1,625°C) and pressure (46,000–60,000 atmospheres). Dear gentlemen, this is what the TRUE (see Ⓣ) Diamond is. All other attempts of verbal denominations (see Ⓛ, Ⓢ, Ⓣ, Ⓥ), are nothing but trickle and trifle!
NOD: see “Counter-gemology” column in No. 14 /2022 of this Review.
Ⓞ
Olmos (Uzbek).
Ⓟ
Phechr (Thai).
Ⓢ
SYNTHETIC: an artificial gemological material, produced through a technological process (in timeframes that are no longer counted in months but in days rather than millions of years), showing chemical and physical characteristics equivalent to those of their corresponding natural materials. A concept that for some is to be intended as relativism or optionalism. See Synth-Diamond.
SYNTH-DIAMOND: synthetic diamond. To someone it is a «natural diamond expanded (or grown) in a laboratory». If you don’t get to understand anymore, please don’t blame the crickets. This is not coming from our own chirping. Instead, just go back to Ⓛ, under Lab-Grown.
SUSTAINABLE: the 1987 Brundtland Report by the World Commission on Environment and Development, entitled “Our Common Future”, suggests by simple and consequential thought that a Sustainable Diamond is a Diamond being produced «in a way that all current needs are satisfied without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs», as well as «respecting the environment and the people by following transparent economic and production processes». Ça va sans dire that what is said above is a prerogative reserved exclusively for Lab-Grown, Lab-Created and related Diamonds. Conversely, Natural ones (one may deduct) are all bad and nasty, all of them being mined in a blindingly opaque method by environmentally disrespectful human ravagers unfit to meet the the requirements of the present time while they are undermining the ability of future generations to meet their own.
Well, since 80–86% of Natural Diamonds can be traced back to their well-controlled industrial mining and since the mining industry complies (willingly or unwillingly) with the laws in force in their countries, your J.C. (Jiminy Cricket) is prompted to wonder whether this negative judgement on natural Diamonds is fair and just. As evidence of this, your J.C. reports what his own compound eyes (typical of Crickets) have witnessed in the 1970s, walking around Mama De Beers’ mines and the like in South Africa to where he went for work purposes. Respect for the environment and people (black and white) and economical and transparent production processes were already practiced there in a systematic way, back in the old time when the term “Sustainability” and the World Commission etc. etc. were yet to come. In the 1970s, in apartheid South Africa, which is saying something!
SWAROVSKI CREATED DIAMOND: again one of those, just changing the brand name.
Ⓣ
Teemant (Estonian); Timanti (Finnish).
TRUE: It is “the Laboratory Grown Natural Diamond”, which is the one dealt with in box Ⓛ, under the entry Lab-Grown (see Ⓛ). Therefore, according to this the Non-Lab-Grown Natural Diamond, that is, the one listed in box Ⓝ, under the entry “Natural”, must be the Fake one. My friends, we are joking about it, as if it were a “witty invention” or an oxymoron, yet history warns us about how tragic the consequences of mystifications, hoaxes and lexical misrepresentations can be, when what is true is turned into false and what is false is turned into true. The prestidigitations and verbal distortions of the Völkischer Beobachter (The People’s Observer) – official newspaper of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeitpartei – and Pravda (The Truth) – official press organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union founded by Vladimir Il’ic Ul’janov known as Lenin – have resulted in Konzentrationslager and Siberian Gulags. So let us avoid the manipulation of minds even if the Revolution is only Green (or supposedly so) this time and not Brown/Black and Red. See Green (Ⓖ).
Ⓥ
VRAI: French for True (see Ⓣ, True). Full name: VRAI Created Diamonds, commercial arm of the Diamond Foundry (see Ⓛ, Lab-Created, for Created). Motto: «True to the future» coming with an autographed dedication by Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor who invested $100 million in Diamond Foundry. Not only loose stones, but also a line of jewelry, also to be sold online.
Ⓩ
Zuànsht (Chinese).
Zip it and sweep it under the carpet! After all this spiel, hands up who has not grasped the hint: as it was already asserted in previous J.C. releases, I have nothing against Synthetic Diamond (as is the case also for Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and all other Synthetic Stones, all of them available in the gemstone business since 1986, 1910 and 1935, respectively).
Everyone has his own. Everyone make his own choice. But provided, however, that it is an knowledgeable one, derived from a correct and honest information. I rather resent the professionals of embellishment who resort in one way or another to Greenwashing to seduce other human beings, for the benefit only of their own pockets. What of you folks, will you sweep the all thing under the carpet? Or are you responding to the call (IGR No. 13) of our editorial, “Up patriots to arms! A Manifesto for a civil and committed gemmology”? Allons, enfants de la Patrie!
Your ever-observant Bad-Mouthed Jiminy Cricket
Counter-Current Gemology from the “Bad-Mouthed Jiminy Cricket” Luigi Costantini, published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #15, Autumn 2022
