You say tomato, I say tomahto, you say potato, I say potahto, and we all say carrot, karat, and carat. When referring to jewelry, you often hear a word that sounds like “carrot” used to describe what seems to be some mystifying attribute, but what does it actually mean? If you are using a screen reader, let me take a moment to spell each of these variations. Yes, the three words sound identical, but they are spelled differently. The orange vegetable consumed in vast quantities by a certain cartoon bunny wabbit is spelled C A R R O T. When referring to gold, it is spelled K A R A T. When talking about gemstones, it is spelled C A R A T.
Quick note: For those of you who do not use a screen reader, the above may have been superfluous, but screen reader users are hearing this text as it is being read aloud, so spelling each word for readers who are blind or who are audio learners may be helpful.
A carat, spelled with a C and one R, is a unit of weight for precious and semi-precious gemstones. You often see it abbreviated as “cttw,” which is short for carat total weight. So, if a gemstone is one-half carat, it will be abbreviated as .50 cttw. A carat is the mass equivalent of 200 milligrams. The word ‘carat” is thought to be derived from the word “carob,” which is a type of tree. these trees produced seeds that were nearly identical in size and weight, making them a popular unit of measure for traders in Europe and the Middle East thousands of years ago. The more seeds required to balance scales used to measure the weight of a gem, the heavier, and therefore more valuable the gem. In the early 1900’s, the Council on Weights and Measures adopted the metric carat as the standard for measuring gemstone weight. One metric carat is about the weight of a paper clip.
A karat, spelled with a K and one R, is the unit of measurement used to identify gold purity. pure gold is said to be 24 karat gold. Gold that is part gold, part other metals is expressed as parts of 24. For example, 18 karat gold is 18 parts pure gold, 6 parts other metals, so it is 75 percent pure gold, the other 25 percent is other metals. If you are wearing a piece of jewelry that is 14 karat gold, you are wearing an item that is about 58.3 percent gold, the rest is other metals. The “other metals”, usually some combination of nickel, copper, and zinc, are added to gold as it is liquefied so as to enhance strength and durability. Pure 24 karat gold is very soft. The lower the number describing the gold purity, the stronger, more durable, and more scratch-resistant the gold becomes, because it contains a lower amount of pure gold, and a greater amount of other metals. Often, the term karat is abbreviated as kt, so gold that is 75 percent pure gold, the rest other metals is expressed as 18 kt. In the US, 14 karat gold is the standard, in Europe, 18 karat gold is preferred. It is very rare to find 24 kt gold in a retail store here in the US, but it is popular in India and a few other countries, although it is usually mixed with copper or silver to add just a bit more durability, making it 22karat gold.
In researching the etymology of the word karat, it appears from some sources that carat with a C and karat with a K have the same origins, but language differences changed the spellings and ultimately the meaning. However, I was able to find one source that indicated that karat with a K was a unit of measure equivalent to the Roman siliqua, which was 1/24th of a golden solidus of Constantine, which is thought to be the reason a karat took on the proportion of 1/24, and became a measure of gold purity.
If you would like to hear a bit of additional info, I published a podcast for The Fashionability Channel, where I host a program called All That Glitters. I posted a show on gold, including colors, characteristics, and other uses.
You can listen to the episode here.
Do you have a favorite piece of gold jewelry? Is it a keepsake, a fashion statement, or your everyday go-to, such as a timepiece?
Sparkle on!
Laura