emerald
/ˈɛm.(ə.)ɹəld/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun
Forms emeralds emeralding emeralded
- noun Any of various green gemstones, especially a green transparent form of beryl, highly valued as a precious stone.
- noun Emerald green, a colour.
- noun (heraldry) Vert, when blazoning by precious stones.
- noun Any hummingbird in the genera Chlorostilbon and Elvira; and some in the genus Amazilia
- noun (entomology) Any of various species of dragonfly of the family Corduliidae.
- noun (dated, printing, UK) A size of type between nonpareil and minion, standardized as 6½-point.
- adjective Of a rich green colour.
- verb (transitive, poetic) To ornament with, or as if with, emeralds; to make green.
- proper noun A town in Queensland, Australia.
- proper noun A town in the Shire of Cardinia and the Shire of Yarra Ranges, central Victoria, Australia
- proper noun A rural municipality in eastern Saskatchewan, Canada; in full, the Rural Municipality of Emerald No. 277.
- proper noun (rare) A female given name from English.
Synonyms
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 (bāréqeṯ, “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).
The Queensland town takes its name from the emerald and other precious stone deposits in the area and from the pastoral run Emerald Downs, a name chosen circa 1860 by pastoralist Peter Fitzallan MacDonald. It is unclear if emeralds were found in or around Emerald.
The given name is a modern coinage from the name of the gemstone, representing a vernacular form of Esmeralda.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A precious stone of a rich green color, a variety of beryl. See Beryl.
- noun A kind of type, in size between minion and nonpare
- adjective Of a rich green color, like that of the emerald. "Emerald meadows." Byron. Emerald fish (Zoöl.), a fish of the Gulf of Mexico (Gobionellus oceanicus), remarkable for the brilliant green and blue color of the base of the tongue; --whence the name; --called also esmeralda.
Etymology [OE. emeraude, OF. esmeraude, esmeralde, F. émeraude, L. smaragdus, fr. Gr. marakata.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “emerald”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details