emerald

English Online Dictionary. What means emerald‎? What does emerald mean?

English

Etymology

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”):

and loanwords with Semitic etymon such as Sanskrit मरकत (marakata) and Persian زمرد (zomorrod) (whence Turkish zümrüt and Russian изумру́д (izumrúd)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛm.(ə.)ɹəld/

Noun

emerald (countable and uncountable, plural emeralds)

1. Any of various green gemstones, especially a green transparent form of beryl, highly valued as a precious stone.
2. Emerald green, a colour.

3. (heraldry) Vert, when blazoning by precious stones.
4. Any hummingbird in the genera Chlorostilbon and Elvira; and some in the genus Amazilia
5. (entomology) Any of various species of dragonfly of the family Corduliidae.
6. (dated, printing, UK) A size of type between nonpareil and minion, standardized as 6½-point.

Synonyms

• (gemstone): smaragd (obsolete)
• (type size, US): minionette

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

emerald (comparative more emerald, superlative most emerald)

1. Of a rich green colour.

Translations

Verb

emerald (third-person singular simple present emeralds, present participle emeralding, simple past and past participle emeralded)

1. (transitive, poetic) To ornament with, or as if with, emeralds; to make green.

Related terms

• smaragd
• smaragdine

See also

• beryl

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Emerald”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “emerald”, in Mindat.org‎^[2], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.