Mother of pearl is the shimmering lining of a shell. Inlaid with mother of pearl.
The colour is not pigment but layers splitting the light, like oil on water. Mother of pearl is the same material a pearl itself is made of, laid in sheets instead of round.
1nounmother of pearlThe shimmering lining of a shell.
“The knife handle was mother of pearl and worth more than the blade.”
mother of pearl is a material.
Latin
māter perlārum
English
mother-of-pearl
English, today
mother of pearl
Built from
mother-of-pearl Latin māter perlārum, with the first element perhaps connected in popular imagination with obsolete mother (“dregs”). Possibly referring to the fact that the nacre-lined shells are the belly (“mother”) in which pearls are produced.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Jewellery & Watches