Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Garnet \Gar"net\, n. [OE. gernet, grenat, OF. grenet,grenat, F.
   grenat, LL. granatus, fr. L. granatum pomegranate, granatus
   having many grains or seeds, fr. granum grain, seed. So
   called from its resemblance in color and shape to the grains
   or seeds of the pomegranate. See {Grain}, and cf. {Grenade},
   {Pomegranate}.] (Min.)
   A mineral having many varieties differing in color and in
   their constituents, but with the same crystallization
   (isometric), and conforming to the same general chemical
   formula. The commonest color is red, the luster is vitreous,
   and the hardness greater than that of quartz. The
   dodecahedron and trapezohedron are the common forms.

   Note: There are also white, green, yellow, brown, and black
         varieties. The garnet is a silicate, the bases being
         aluminia lime (grossularite, essonite, or cinnamon
         stone), or aluminia magnesia (pyrope), or aluminia iron
         (almandine), or aluminia manganese (spessartite), or
         iron lime (common garnet, melanite, allochroite), or
         chromium lime (ouvarovite, color emerald green). The
         transparent red varieties are used as gems. The garnet
         was, in part, the carbuncle of the ancients. Garnet is
         a very common mineral in gneiss and mica slate.

   {Garnet berry} (Bot.), the red currant; -- so called from its
      transparent red color.

   {Garnet brown} (Chem.), an artificial dyestuff, produced as
      an explosive brown crystalline substance with a green or
      golden luster. It consists of the potassium salt of a
      complex cyanogen derivative of picric acid.