Etymology of the Word Opal

[Neil]

Hello,

I am a meager student living in Boulder, Colorado studying the history
of Opals for a very small assignment that has much captured my heart,
but am at a complete loss to answer as I don't speak Hungarian very
well and am still learning the history.

With your permission I'm hoping that I might approach you with the
following question regarding the etymology of the word Opal.

I have found a book by Eckert (The World of Opals) that describes:

The Opal known to Romans no doubt came from Hungary, which, until the
discovery in 1877 of the much richer
Australian deposits, was the only source. This Hungarian locality is
now in the province of Slovakia in the
new Checkoslovakian Republic. The mines near Cervenica (the more
usual spelling Czerwenitza in Polish and German),
which in Hungarian was called Vorosvagas, a translation of the Slovak
name meaning "red town". Another Slovak
village near the opal mines is Dubnik, which was called Opalbanya (ie
opal mine) in Hungarian. Here the opal is fond
in cavities and crevices in a volcanic rock (andesite) of the Tertiary
age, and hot springs still exist in the neighborhood.

Ironically, the Romans thought the Opals came from the far east, hence
the sanskrit folk etymology of Upala (or precious stone),
however what I am told is that the world Opal came from the traders
who brought the Opal down the Danube across the Black Sea
to Byzantium. They used the word Opal since that was the place it
came from.

After discovering there is an actual town called Opalbanya, I'm
wondering if you might guide me on how to find
out what the magyar word, "Opal" really means. Also, who you think
these traders might have been?

Best Regards,

Neil

[Peter Semrad]

Dear Neil,

I do not write in my book about etymology of opal word but may be you would like it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVgEPXSaYGc

Best regards,
Peter

Dňa sobota, 2. mája 2009 22:23:58 UTC+2 Neil napísal(-a):

[gauc...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, May 2, 2009 1:23:58 PM UTC-7, Neil wrote:

>...

> After discovering there is an actual town called Opalbanya, I'm
> wondering if you might guide me on how to find
> out what the magyar word, "Opal" really means. Also, who you think
> these traders might have been?
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Neil

thanks for your interest and for posting to scm. neil

what i gathered is this; due to the humiliating defeat of the magyars at augsburg in 955 hungary became dominated by the church of rome and became a papal vassal state

after this latin was not only the official language of the country for many centuries, but the language of the aristocracy as well

according to wikipedia: "The word opal is adapted from the Roman term opalus, but the origin of this word is a matter of debate. Probably it is Latin for 'of white' like opaque. However, most modern references suggest it is adapted from the Sanskrit word úpala."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opal

so i'm afraid the magyars have nothing to do with this word's origin
they have simply--similarly to other peoples--adopted existing words in many cases for which they didn't have their own

this also happens as we speak :-)>

(as for the traders, i have no information about those)