Writers frequently invoke “opal” as an adjective to evoke light that shimmers with subtle, shifting hues—an effect reminiscent of the gemstone’s interior play of color. For instance, natural landscapes are often depicted with skies described as “pure opal” or even “opal‐green,” suggesting an ethereal, luminescent quality ([1], [2], [3]). In other passages, opal lends its name to delicate color nuances: fish, dreams, and even celestial objects take on opalescent tints, as when a “broken rainbow of the milky opal” or an “opal button” moon is portrayed, merging the tangible with the fantastical ([4], [5], [6]). Authors also describe pools, oceans, and distant vistas as tinted or gleaming like opal, highlighting an ever-changing, mystical palette that enhances the scene’s otherworldliness ([7], [8], [9]). This recurring use of “opal” as a color descriptor enriches literary imagery by suggesting both fragility and a complex interplay of light and color ([10], [11], [12]).
- The sky was pure opal now, and the roofs of the houses glistened like silver against it.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- "Oh! To be so forever," she exclaimed, gazing at the globe of solid gold against the opal-green sky.
— from Lords of the North by Agnes C. Laut
- Once more from the opal-blue sky of autumn nights, shone the great white stars, and nature seemed wrapped in a melancholy hush.
— from The Last Trail by Zane Grey
- Some of them were gold-fish and some silver-fish, but others had opal tints that were very pretty.
— from Policeman Bluejay by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
- He loved the red gold of the sunstone, and the moonstone's pearly whiteness, and the broken rainbow of the milky opal.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- The vespertine hour was nigh, and over this iron landscape there floated the moon, an opal button in the sky.
— from Visionaries by James Huneker
- She hesitated—it was as though she had come to the threshold of a sanctuary—then went on under the boughs to the opal pool.
— from The Rim of the Desert by Ada Woodruff Anderson
- Capri lay like a half-dissolved opal in shimmering clouds of mist, and Naples gleamed out pearly clear in the purple distance.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 49, November, 1861
A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various
- Away out towards the horizon the ocean gleamed a fairy-like blue and opal; but close at hand it had a deep, menacing tint that took your breath away.
— from The Further Adventures of O'Neill in Holland by J. Irwin (John Irwin) Brown
- Then Broome departed, leaving Roy to dream—in a blue mist of tobacco smoke—the opal-tinted ego-centric dreams of one-and-twenty.
— from Far to Seek
A Romance of England and India by Maud Diver
- That (Amory’s pretty lips compressed and her eyes shone with a cold and opal-like fire) must not be.
— from Gray youth: The story of a very modern courtship and a very modern marriage by Oliver Onions
- They thought that question answered, when, out of the evening pink and opal and the golden sand behind them, they saw three Arabs riding.
— from Donovan Pasha, and Some People of Egypt — Volume 4 by Gilbert Parker