Hard as diamonds

The sad thing is that I'm fairly certain that this isn't even close to being the dorkiest conversation I will have this week:

Me: There is this wonderfully entertaining debate over on Salon about the usage of the word "adamantine" in regards to a description of Wolverine's claws [in a review of X-Men: The Last Stand]
vs. Adamantium that is
Him: the latter is correct
Me: I know...but that's the debate, because the writer used adamantine
Him: well he is stupid and shouldnt be writing about things that he doesnt know about...
f*ckin jerk
Me: and they're arguing over whether or not that could work too since Adamantium is technically adamantine
and it was a woman
Him: 1) Adamantium is NOT adamantine...
they sound the same...however, Adamantium has different properties (in the book) than adamantine...
Me: yes it is. adamantine is an adjective and the fictional substance of Adamantium is by definition adamantine
ahh i see
Him: no its not...
Me: not even when used as an adjective?
Him: the creator named it a similar name, but not the same name...
Me: just to mean hard as a diamond?
Him: no. its pronunciation has nothing to with it...it’s a different 'element'
Me: no I understand that
but I mean that "element"
when described
could be described as being adamantine, couldn't it?
in it's classical Greek sense
I mean
Him: I’ve never seen it referred to as such...
Me: well of course not, because it was obviously an error...more likely a copy editor who changed it, but I mean as a way of justifying it's usage
on a technicality
Him: I’ve seen..."his claws are made of adamantium" AND "he has adamantium claws"
Me: yeah but those are describing what they are actually made of
the substance
but you can also say “his claws are shiny”
Him: right...
Me: and adamantine means "hard as a diamond"
so you could, technically, say "his claws are adamantine"
you can even say "his Adamantium claws are adamantine"
Him: no...
Me: why not?
Him: because you would be wrong when saying that...
Wolverine's adamantium claws are harder than diamond...they are the only indestructible material on Earth (this is from the book)...
Me: hmmm...but "hard as diamond" isn't meant to be literal...
like I could say "ugh, talking to you is adamantine sometimes"
Him: but even saying it figuratively would not express its indestructibility
Me: okay I see what you mean...although I still don't think it's technically wrong...if used figuratively
Him: Is this what’s going on at Salon?
Me: basically
lol
i think that we got into it a lot more than they did though…
Him: a collection of losers...
Me: i should just cut and paste our convo
Him: of course we did
please dont
Me: lol
Can I put it in the blog?
Him: Id almost rather it at Salon...
but do what you need to do...
Me: I won't say it's you
Him: thanks
Me: although anyone that knows both of us will know it is
Him: yea...people will have no idea