beryl

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English beril, also berille,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman beril, recorded from the early 12th century,^[4][3] and Old French beril, also beryl,^[5][6][7][8] from Latin bēryllus,^[5][6][2] from Ancient Greek βήρυλλος (bḗrullos).^[5][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged calls the Greek a back-formation from βηρύλλιον (bērúllion),^[3] and it is borrowed from Prakrit veruḷiya, a metathesized form of Pali veḷuriya, Sanskritized as Sanskrit वैदूर्य (vaidūrya).^[3][9][10] The name is perhaps taken from Vēḷūr, modern Belur, a town in southern India.^[3][9][6] Etymonline and Wiktionary call it Dravidian,^[6][1] and the American Heritage Dictionary compares a Tamil verb meaning to whiten, become pale.^[10] The OED and the Shorter Oxford are more cautious, saying only that the Greek is probably a foreign word.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A precious stone: before 1300, named in a list of stones with smaragde and crisopace, in the text the Middle English Dictionary cites as A Mayde Cristes.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from about 1305, in the Land of Cokayne.^[5] Barnhart gives before 1300, and Etymonline about 1300.^[11][6]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Latin berillus was used of any pale green stone, of fine crystal and of an eyeglass,^[6][5] because the first spectacles were made of beryl, according to Klein, or may have been, according to Etymonline; hence Middle High German berille, modern German Brille (“spectacles”), and Old French bericle, altered to French besicles (“spectacles”).^[9][6][5] English followed part of the way: from about 1384, in Chaucer, beryl was also a fine crystal or glass, and until 1625 it was used for vases, caskets and window glazing,^[5][2] while "clear as beryl" was a proverbial comparison from before 1350 to 1550.^[5] The word was also applied in admiration to a woman (c. 1440–1535), and in Middle English to Christ and to the Virgin Mary.^[5][2] A beryl or beryl-glass was a mirror from 1540 to 1576.^[5] Johnson (1755) quoted Woodward's statement that the lapidaries' beryl was a fine deep red cornelian.^[12] Mineralogy gave the term its modern scope in 1837, with Dana's species including the emerald,^[5][7] and the colour sense is recorded just before it, in 1834.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1300 – a precious stone.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from about 1305.^[5]
• before 1350 – as clear as beryl.^[5][2]
• c. 1384 – a fine crystal or glass (obsolete by 1625).^[5][2]
• c. 1440 – applied in admiration to a woman (obsolete by 1535).^[5]
• 1508 – adjective, clear as crystal, later clear pale green.^[5]
• 1540 – a mirror (obsolete by 1576).^[5]
• 1834 – the colour of beryl, a pale sea-green.^[5]
• 1837 – in mineralogy, the species that includes emerald.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hard mineral, a silicate of beryllium and aluminum, occurring in hexagonal prisms of green, blue, yellow, pink or white; it is the chief source of beryllium, and emerald and aquamarine are varieties of it.^[3][13][7]
2. The gemstone cut from this mineral, especially a pale green one: a brooch set with a large beryl.^[5][7]
3. A pale greenish blue.^[3][5][7]
4. (obsolete, 1384–1625) A fine crystal or glass.^[5][2][7]

Adjective

1. Of a clear pale green.^[5][7]

Word family

• berylline
• beryllium
• chrysoberyl

Related words

• brilliant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins