topaz

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtəʊˌpæz/ (UK); /ˈtoʊˌpæz/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English topace,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French topace, topaze,^[2][3][5][4] from Latin topazus,^[2][3][5] from Ancient Greek τόπαζος (tópazos), τοπάζιον (topázion),^[2][3][5][6] of obscure origin.^[5][7] Pliny says it was named after a remote island in the Red Sea where it was mined, so called because it was hard to find, from τοπάζειν (topázein, “to conjecture, try to locate”), but this may be a folk etymology.^[5][8][9] Others compare Sanskrit तपस् (tapas, “heat, fire”).^{[5][8][7][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A precious stone (about 1250 in Barnhart; mid-13th century in Etymonline; before 1272 in the OED).^[3][5][11] In Middle English the word could be used of almost any yellow stone.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

The Greeks and Romans gave the name to a yellow stone, possibly yellow olivine or a yellow sapphire.^[5][11] In modern mineralogy it is a fluosilicate of aluminium,^[5][11] the true topaz, as distinct from yellow sapphire, called oriental topaz, and yellow quartz, called false topaz.^[12][13] In heraldry that blazons by precious stones it names the tincture or (1562).^[11][14] As a colour name, a dark yellow, it dates from 1908.^[11][5] In 17th- and 18th-century India topaz or topass was also a name for soldiers of mixed Portuguese descent, a different word.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – topace, a precious stone.^[3]
• 1562 – the heraldic tincture or.^[11]
• 1908 – a dark yellow colour.^[11][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A mineral, a silicate of aluminium containing fluorine, colourless or tinted yellow, blue, brown or pink, and valued as a gemstone.
2. Any of various yellow gemstones, especially a yellow variety of sapphire or of quartz (citrine).
3. A yellowish-brown colour.
4. Either of two brilliantly coloured South American hummingbirds of the genus Topaza.

Word family

• false topaz

Related words

• sapphire
• citrine
• chrysolite
• tepid

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray