Pearl
A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a clam, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes of pearls (baroque pearls) occur. The finest quality natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries, and because of this, the word pearl has become a metaphor for something very rare, fine, admirable, and valuable.
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Famous quotes containing the word pearl:
“For the first fourteen years for a rod they do whine,
For the next as a pearl in the world they do shine,
For the next trim beauty beginneth to swerve,
For the next matrons or drudges they serve,
For the next doth crave a staff for a stay,
For the next a bier to fetch them away.”
—Thomas Tusser (c. 1520–1580)
“Major Bagley: So they really got the Arizona.
Captain Quincannon: Yes, sir. Hickham Field was hit just as bad as Pearl Harbor, lot of fifth column work.
Major Bagley: I’ve studied all the wars in history, gentlemen, and I’ve never come across any dirty treachery like that.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)