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jade

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Etymology and origin of the English word jade

The spelling jade covers a name for a worn-out horse, of unknown origin, and the name of the green stone, which comes from Spanish.[1][2][3] Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories calls the horse word the earlier homonym.[4]

Pronunciation

jade1 worn-out horse

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1386, Chaucer, Nun's Priest's Prologue
Inherited from
Middle English jade

Etymology

The horse is inherited from Middle English jade, of uncertain or unknown origin.[2][6][7][8] Barnhart suggests it is a variant of Scots and northern yaud, a mare, borrowed perhaps through an Anglo-French *jaud from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse jalda (“mare”), itself apparently from a Finno-Ugric word for a mare;[9] Klein and Weekley also connect the word with jalda,[10][11] and the American Heritage Dictionary compares Swedish jälda (“mare”) in Swedish dialect.[12] The OED finds the assumed link with yaud to be without reason.[2][6] Johnson recorded Skinner's guess that it came from a word for a goad.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A contemptuous name for a horse, especially a cart horse or a worn-out nag: c. 1386, in Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Prologue, where the Host says "Be blithe, though thou ryde upon a jade".[2][4] Barnhart dates the form iade, a cart horse or hack, to about 1390.[9]

Semantic evolution

From 1553 the word was also used playfully for any horse.[2] From 1560 it was a term of abuse for a woman, and also a playful one like hussy or minx;[2][6][7] it was applied to Fortune and Nature personified (1594) and, rarely, to a man (1608).[2] The verb, to wear a horse out by hard work and then to tire or weary anyone, comes from the noun:[2][6] the OED dates it to 1615, Barnhart to 1606 in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra,[2][9] and Merriam-Webster to 1524.[14] The adjective jaded goes back to the horse, not to the woman.[3] In Scotland and northern England the dialect forms jaud and yaud meant a mare or an old horse.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1386 – a poor or worn-out horse.[2]
  • 1553 – playfully, any horse.[2]
  • 1560 – a term of abuse for a woman.[2]
  • 1606 – verb, to tire, weary, in Barnhart's dating.[9]
  • 1615 – verb, to wear out a horse by overwork.[2]
  • 1627 – verb, to become tired, flag.[2]
  • 1859 – (US slang) a long prison sentence.[16]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (archaic) A worn-out, worthless or bad-tempered horse; a nag.
  2. (archaic or humorous) A woman thought of as wilful or disreputable; a hussy or minx.

Verb

  1. To tire out or dull by overwork or too much of something.

Word family

  • jaded
  • jadish

jade2 green stone

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1595, W. Raleigh, Discoverie of Guiana
Borrowed from
French jade
Ultimate origin
Latin īlia

Etymology

The stone is borrowed from French jade,[2][9][14] first in the phrase le jade (1667), a misdivision of the earlier l'ejade (1633), when the word was still unfamiliar.[2][6] The French word comes from Spanish ijada (“flank”) in the phrase piedra de ijada (“stone of the flank”), recorded in Monardes in 1569,[2][6][14] so called because the stone was believed to cure colic and pain in the side.[9][12][4] The Spanish noun comes from Vulgar Latin *īliāta, from Latin īlia (“flanks, groin”), plural of īlium, the source of ileum.[9][12][17] Collins and Dictionary.com put Italian giada between the Spanish and the French word;[17][18] the OED records iada in Florio's Italian dictionary of 1598.[2] The same belief gave the stone its other name, nephrite, from Ancient Greek νεφρός (nephrós, “kidney”).[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The green stone: 1595, in Walter Raleigh's Discoverie of Guiana, where "a kinde of greene stones which the Spaniards call Piedras Hijadas" are used as spleen stones.[2][4] Etymonline and Barnhart date the form iada to the 1590s and jade to 1721–41, in Chambers's Cyclopaedia;[6][9] Merriam-Webster dates the stone to about 1741.[14]

Semantic evolution

Jade was valued in western Europe both as an ornament and as a cure for kidney and internal complaints.[4] The name is applied to two different minerals, nephrite and jadeite, which look alike and were used for tools and ornaments because they are hard.[2][4] It has been an adjective for the colour, a bluish or pale green, since 1865 according to Etymonline, or 1921 according to the OED.[6][2]

Timeline

  • 1569 – Spanish piedra de yjada.[2]
  • 1595 – the stone, in Raleigh.[2]
  • 1633 – French l'ejade.[2]
  • 1667 – French le jade.[2]
  • 1721–41 – the spelling jade in English.[9][6]
  • 1865 – as an adjective, in Etymonline's dating.[6]
  • 1921 – the colour, jade green.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A hard, usually green stone, either jadeite or nephrite, carved into ornaments and jewellery.
  2. An object carved from jade.
  3. A pale or bluish green, the colour of jade.

Adjective

  1. Made of jade, or of the colour of jade: a jade vase.

Word family

  • jadeite
  • ileum
  • nephrite
  • yaud
  • nag
  • hack

References

  1. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ 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 z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Jade.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/jade. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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