Date
Meaning & History
Possibly from Old French alemandine, the name of a gem of a deep red colour (and the source of English almandine); this word was a corruption of Latin alabandicus "Alabandic (stone)", the name applied by Pliny the Elder to a variety of carbuncle worked at the city of Alabanda in Asia Minor (see ALABANDUS). Alternatively, it may be connected to ALAMANDA. This was the name of a queen in the 13th-century Arthurian romance Floriant et Florete.