Touchstone - Wiktionary

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• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Etymology
  • 1.2 Pronunciation
  • 1.3 Noun
    • 1.3.1 Translations
    • 1.3.2 See also
  • 1.4 Anagrams

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• Discussion

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In other projects Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wiktionary, the free dictionary See also: Touchstone

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:touchstone (assaying tool)Wikipedia

Etymology

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From touch +‎ stone.

Pronunciation

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• IPA(key): /ˈtʌt͡ʃstəʊn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

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touchstone (plural touchstones)

1. A stone used to verify the quality of gold alloys by rubbing them in order to leave a visible trace.
2. (figurative, by extension) A standard of comparison or evaluation. Near-synonym: comparator
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:The foregoing doctrine affords us also a touchstone for the trial of spirits.
   • 1950 January, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 12:"Expectation of life" is an elastic term: the touchstone here is rather the aggregate amount of work that the locomotive does during its working life.
   • 2002 January, Eve Garrard, “Forgiveness and the Holocaust”, in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, page 147:Although there has not been very much direct treatment of the Holocaust in analytic moral philosophy, the Nazis appear again and again as examples or touchstones in the construction of moral theories.
   • 2012, Ann Baynes Coiro, Thomas Fulton, Rethinking Historicism from Shakespeare to Milton, page 243:In the print firestorm that followed the publication of the royal couple's letters, the generalissima was one polemical touchstone. The Annotations to The Kings Cabinet Opened itself depicted the queen as an enemy to king and country: […]
   • 2025 June 20, Nick Levine, “'In every theatre, people would leave': How 'gay cowboy movie' Brokeback Mountain challenged Hollywood – and the US”, in BBC‎[1]:Brokeback Mountain did take home three Oscars, including a prestigious best director prize for Ang Lee, and remains a beloved gay touchstone.

Translations

[edit] stone used to test the quality of gold alloys

Arabic: مِحَكّ m (miḥakk) Armenian: փորձաքար (hy) (pʻorjakʻar) Old Armenian: սմպատակ (smpatak) Basque: froga-harri Bulgarian: пробен камък m (proben kamǎk) Burmese: မှတ်ကျောက် (my) (hmatkyauk) Catalan: pedra de toc f Chinese: Mandarin: 試金石 / 试金石 (zh) (shìjīnshí) Czech: prubířský kámen (cs) m Danish: prøvesten Dutch: toetssteen (nl) m Finnish: koetinkivi (fi) French: touchau (fr) m Galician: pedra de toque (gl) f German: Prüfstein (de) m, Probierstein (de) m Greek: λυδία λίθος (el) (lydía líthos) Hindi: कसौटी (hi) f (kasauṭī), निकष (hi) m (nikaṣ), निकषण (hi) m (nikṣaṇ), परस (hi) m (paras), पारस (hi) m (pāras), शान (hi) m (śān), सान (hi) m (sān), स्पर्शमणि (hi) f (sparśamṇi) Hungarian: próbakő (hu) Icelandic: prófsteinn m Italian: pietra di paragone Japanese: 試金石 (ja) (しきんせき, shikin seki) Korean: 시금석 (sigeumseok) Norwegian: Bokmål: prøvestein Nynorsk: prøvestein Ottoman Turkish: مهنك (mehenk) Persian: سنگ محک Polish: kamień probierczy m Portuguese: pedra de toque f Russian: проби́рный ка́мень (ru) m (probírnyj kámenʹ) Serbo-Croatian: пробни камен m, probni kamen m Spanish: piedra de toque (es) f, toque (es) m Swedish: probersten (sv) c, prövosten c Turkish: denek taşı, mihenk (tr), mihenk taşı (tr) Ukrainian: пробірний камінь m (probirnyj kaminʹ) Yiddish: אבֿן־בוחן m (evn-boykhn)

standard of comparison or evaluation

Armenian: չափանիշ (hy) (čʻapʻaniš), փորձաքար (hy) (pʻorjakʻar) Bulgarian: критерий (bg) m (kriterij) Chinese: Mandarin: 試金石 / 试金石 (zh) (shìjīnshí) Dutch: maatstaf (nl) m, toetssteen (nl) m Finnish: koetinkivi (fi) French: pierre de touche (fr) f Galician: pedra de toque (gl) f German: Prüfstein (de) m Greek: βάσανος (el) f (vásanos) Hindi: मानदंड (hi) m (māndaṇḍ), पैमाना (hi) m (paimānā), परीक्षा (hi) f (parīkṣā), कसौटी (hi) f (kasauṭī), निकषण (hi) m (nikṣaṇ) Hungarian: ismérv (hu), kritérium (hu) Italian: pietra di paragone f Japanese: 試金石 (ja) (しきんせき, shikin seki) Korean: 기준 (ko) (gijun) Polish: probierz m Portuguese: pedra de toque f Spanish: norma (es) f Swedish: prövosten c Turkish: denek taşı, mihenk (tr), mihenk taşı (tr)

See also

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• bellwether
• benchmark
• capstone
• cornerstone
• exemplar
• keystone
• model
• norm
• philosopher's stone
• reference
• tester

Anagrams

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• touch-tones, touchtones

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=touchstone&oldid=88037993" Categories:

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• en:Measuring instruments

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