# How did diamonds come to symbolize a wedding engagement? (Current Random Straight Dope Column) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 29, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-diamonds-come-to-symbolize-a-wedding-engagement-current-random-straight-dope-column/805528 "2017-12-29T17:31:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Progress\_Hornsby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@Progress\_Hornsby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Progress_Hornsby)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-diamonds-come-to-symbolize-a-wedding-engagement-current-random-straight-dope-column/805528/1 "2017-12-29T17:31:34Z")
Current Random Straight Dope Column Dear Straight Dope: …How did the diamond ring come to symbolize the event of engagement? SDStaff Songbird replies: A kiss on the hand might be quite continental, as lyricist Jule Styne once wrote, but diamonds are still considered a girl’s best friend. … * * * SDStaff Songbird of 1999, did no one ever correct the “lyricist Jule Styne” attribution? Leo Robin wrote the words; Styne wrote the music. It’s a common mistake to muddle lyricist/composer credits, but we expect more with our Straight Dope. Introducing innocent SD readers to the wit of Anita Loos almost makes the lapse forgivable. A good introduction to the lyricist: [https://leorobin.com/](https://leorobin.com/) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-diamonds-come-to-symbolize-a-wedding-engagement-current-random-straight-dope-column/805528/2 "2017-12-29T19:55:03Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, **Progress Hornsby**. It’s helpful to link to the column you’re discussing, especially since clicking on a random column doesn’t bring up the same column for everyone. I’ve taken the liberty of doing so for you. [How did diamonds come to symbolize a wedding engagement?](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1452/how-did-diamonds-come-to-symbolize-a-wedding-engagement/) I hope this is the correct one. ---
**Author:** ![bencurthoys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/0ea827/32.png) [@bencurthoys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bencurthoys)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2017, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-diamonds-come-to-symbolize-a-wedding-engagement-current-random-straight-dope-column/805528/3 "2017-12-30T21:02:51Z")
I thought this - from 1982 - was pretty much the definitive answer: > **[Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/)** > > An unruly market may undo the work of a giant cartel and of an inspired, decades-long ad campaign ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2017, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-diamonds-come-to-symbolize-a-wedding-engagement-current-random-straight-dope-column/805528/4 "2017-12-30T21:44:07Z")
> [@bencurthoys](#): > > I thought this - from 1982 - was pretty much the definitive answer: > > [Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? - The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/) Not any more. Rachelle Bergstein’s [Brilliance and Fire: A Biography of Diamonds](https://www.amazon.com/Brilliance-Fire-Biography-Rachelle-Bergstein/dp/0062323776) is far superior. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Brother\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_brother_1/32/3513_2.png) [@Little\_Brother\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Brother_1)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-diamonds-come-to-symbolize-a-wedding-engagement-current-random-straight-dope-column/805528/5 "2018-01-01T23:52:20Z")
Thanks (and Happy New Year!) to bencurthoys and Exapno Mapcase. I well understand that SD’s mission is to inform and enlighten, such that responses avoid going into the “weeds” of sociopolitical criticism and exposés. That’s what the comments threads are for, I suppose. But the abominable “blood diamonds” market, at least in part, is a consequence of reprehensible international diamond-cartel marketing hype. At least in the US, the diamond-sellers inculcated the notion that any decent, respectable spouse-to-be is required to spend a small fortune, and even go into debt, in order to fufill the “traditional” imperative of putting a diamond ring on their mate’s finger. It’s become permanently _de rigueur_– virtually compulsory, thanks to generations of relentless commercial opinion-shaping. Again: I don’t expect polemics or diatribes in SD answers, but the posted answer could’ve been cribbed from a De Beers brochure. Even an allusion to the darker, artificial side of this hijacked and manipulated tradition would’ve been welcome.