garnet

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gernet, also grenat and later garnet,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French grenat, also grenate and gernate,^[5][2][6][4] which was originally an adjective meaning dark red, red like a pomegranate.^[4][3][5] The Shorter Oxford, Hoad, the ODE and Ayto take the English word as borrowed through Middle Dutch gernate or garnate,^{[7][8][9][10]} while the OED derives these Middle Dutch forms from the Old French.^[6] The French word is from Medieval Latin grānātum (“garnet; of a dark red colour”),^[5][6] which according to some is a transferred use of the Latin word for the pomegranate, the neuter of Latin grānātus (“seedy”),^[11][6][8] the stone being named for its resemblance to the pulp of the fruit in colour^[6][8][12] or to the shape of its seeds.^[5][13] Others derive it from grānum (“grain; cochineal, red dye”), the source of grain.^[6][5][14] Etymonline explains garnet as a metathesized form of gernet.^[5] The word is widespread in Europe: Spanish granate, Portuguese granate, Italian granato, Dutch granaat and German Granat.^[5][13][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The red gem: Barnhart dates gernet to about 1325, already with reference to its colour,^[4] and the OED and the MED quote the Harley Lyrics (before 1350), where a lady is "ase gernet in golde ant ruby wel ryht".^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also meant the pomegranate itself, from before 1400 into the early 15th century,^[4][6] and the phrase gernet red named the colour.^[2] Johnson (1755) described the garnet as a gem of middle hardness, between the sapphire and common crystal, and linked the name to Italian garnato and to the colour of the pomegranate's grain.^[16] Modern mineralogy uses the word for a whole group of silicate minerals, red, brown, yellow, green, black or white,^[11][3][7] which are used as abrasives as well as gems;^[17][3] Merriam-Webster's Word Histories notes that many garnets are not red at all, so that the name, from a word for a pomegranate red, misleads.^[12] The word also names a deep red colour.^[11][18][13]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – gernet, the red gem.^[4] The OED's first quotation is from before 1350, in the Harley Lyrics.^[6][2]
• before 1400 – the pomegranate (obsolete).^[4][6]
• c. 1400 – the spelling garnet.^[4] Etymonline dates this metathesized form to the mid 15th century.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of a group of hard, glassy silicate minerals, usually red but also brown, yellow, green or other colours, found in igneous and metamorphic rocks and used as gemstones and abrasives.^{[3][17][11][7]}
2. A gem cut from such a mineral, especially from a deep red, transparent variety: a ring set with three small garnets.^[7][19][18]
3. A dark or deep red colour.^[11][18][13]

Word family

• garnetiferous
• garnetlike
• gooseberry garnet

Related words

• grenade
• pomegranate
• grain
• granate

Usage notes

Some red garnets from the western United States are sold under trade names such as American ruby or Arizona ruby, which Merriam-Webster's Word Histories calls confusing.^[12] The nautical garnet, a tackle on a sailing ship for hoisting cargo in or out, is of unknown origin, probably from Dutch garnaat, and is recorded from 1485.^[6][7][3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
19. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press