- published: 26 Jul 2012
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A finger ring is a circular band worn as a type of ornamental jewellery around the finger; it is the most common current meaning of the word ring. Other types of metal rings worn as ornaments are also called rings, such as earrings, arm rings, toe rings and neck rings.
Rings can be of almost any material: metal, plastic, wood, bone, glass, gemstone to name a few. They may be set with a stone of some sort, which is often a precious or semi-precious gemstone such as diamond, ruby, sapphire or emerald, but can also be of almost any material.
The custom of giving and receiving finger rings dates back over approximately 6,000 years. Tracing exact history is difficult.
The Hittite civilization produced rings including signet rings, only a few of which have been discovered.Old Kingdom Egypt had a variety of finger rings, and a few basic examples have been found, including the famous scarab design. Egyptian rings became more common during the middle kingdom, with increasingly complex designs. The various Egyptian styles were replaced by Greek and Roman fashions during the Ptolemaic dynasty.
Ring may refer to:
Jewellery or jewelry ( /ˈdʒuːəlᵊri/) is a form of personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.
With some exceptions, such as medical alert bracelets or military dog tags, jewellery normally differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to look appealing, but humans have been producing and wearing it for a long time – with 100,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius shells thought to be the oldest known jewellery.
Jewellery may be made from a wide range of materials, but gemstones, precious metals, beads and shells have been widely used. Depending on the culture and times jewellery may be appreciated as a status symbol, for its material properties, its patterns, or for meaningful symbols. Jewellery has been made to adorn nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings.
The word jewellery itself is derived from the word jewel, which was anglicized from the Old French "jouel", and beyond that, to the Latin word "jocale", meaning plaything. In British English the spelling can be written as jewelery or jewellery, while in U.S. English the spelling jewelry.