gemstone

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gimstone, also ȝimston,^[2][3] inherited from Old English gimstān (“a gem, jewel, precious stone”),^[4][5][2][3] a compound from Old English gim + stān, in today's spelling gem and stone.^[5][6] The first element is from Latin gemma (“bud, jewel”),^[5] and Bosworth and Toller compare Icelandic gimsteinn.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A gem or jewel: Old English, in Ælfric's Homilies, Ðás gymstánas synd tocwýsede, "these jewels are crushed".^[5][3] Dictionary.com dates the word before 1000, and Merriam-Webster before the 12th century.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle English the word simply meant a gem, also figuratively; it glosses Latin gemma in Old English, and the OED has no record of it after 1290.^[5][3] The modern use appears in 1883, in A. H. Church's Precious Stones, with a narrower technical sense: a stone that can be worked up into a gem.^[5] Merriam-Webster now defines it as a mineral or petrified material that can be cut and polished for jewellery,^[6] Collins as a precious or semiprecious stone, especially one cut and polished for a setting.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1000 – a gem, a jewel, in Ælfric's Homilies.^[5][2][3]
• 1883 – a stone capable of being worked up into a gem.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mineral or other material that can be cut and polished for jewellery; a precious or semiprecious stone: The ring held a single green gemstone.^[6][7][5]
2. (obsolete, Old English–1290) A gem, a jewel; also figurative.^[5][3]

Related words

• gem
• stone

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
4. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins