emerald
Meaning
-
- Any of various green gemstones, especially a green transparent form of beryl, highly valued as a precious stone.
- Emerald green, a colour.
- Vert, when blazoning by precious stones.
- Any hummingbird in the genera Chlorostilbon and Elvira; and some in the genus Amazilia
- Any of various species of dragonfly of the family Corduliidae.
- A size of type between nonpareil and minion, standardized as 6½-point.
Synonyms
Frequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈɛm.(ə.)ɹəld/
Etymology
In summary
From Middle English emeraude, borrowed from Old French esmeraude, from Vulgar Latin *smaralda, *smaraldus, *smaraudus, variant of Latin smaragdus, from Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smáragdos), μάραγδος (máragdos), from a Semitic language. Compare Hebrew בָּרֶקֶת (bareket, “emerald, flashing gem”), Akkadian 𒁀𒊏𒄣 (baraqu, literally “scintillation”), Arabic بَرْق (barq, literally “flashing”), Egyptian bwyrqꜣ (literally “to sparkle”):D58-Z7-Z4:D21-N29-Z1-G1-D6 and loanwords with Semitic etymon such as Sanskrit मरकत (marakata) and Persian زمرد (zomorrod) (whence Turkish zümrüt and Russian изумру́д (izumrúd)).
Bookmark this
Improve your pronunciation
Start learning English with learnfeliz.
Practice speaking and memorizing "emerald" and many other words and sentences in English.
Go to our English course page
Notes