turquoise

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English turkeis, also turkois and torcas,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French turqueise,^{[5][4][6][7][8]} short for pierre turqueise (“Turkish stone”), the feminine of turqueis (“Turkish”), from Turc (“Turk”).^[5][6][9][3] The present spelling, from the 16th century, follows Middle French turquoise.^[7][9][10] The stone was so named because it came to Europe from Turkestan, where it was first found, or through the Turkish dominions;^{[5][4][10][9]} Klein says it came from the Sinai peninsula, then part of the Turkish lands.^[11] Other languages have the same word: Spanish turquesa, Italian turchese, Portuguese turqueza, Medieval Latin turchesius, Middle Dutch turcoys, German Türkis and Swedish turkos.^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The precious stone: 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum,^[5][9] which describes it as a "white ȝelow stoon" that "haþ þat name of þe contre of Turkeys þer it is ybred".^[2]

Semantic evolution

The OED explains the changing forms: the Old French turkeis first moved its stressed vowel and then, as in other Germanic languages, its stress, giving turkes and turkas, before these were replaced, from before 1600, by the French spelling turquoise.^[5] Barnhart dates the modern form to 1567.^[9] The word was used for the colour as an adjective from 1573,^[9][10] or the late 16th century in Ayto;^[7] turquoise-blue is recorded from 1799,^[10] and turquoise as a colour name from 1853.^[5][10] The fuller turquoise stone is recorded from 1556 and is now rare.^[5] Lapidaries also gave the name to odontolite, a fossil bone coloured blue, from 1796, also called bone turquoise.^[5]

Timeline

• 1398 – turkeis, the precious stone.^[5][9][2]
• 1556 – turquoise stone.^[5]
• 1567 – the modern form turquoise.^[9]
• 1573 – adjective, of the colour of turquoise.^[9][10]
• 1607 – the stone as a substance.^[5]
• 1796 – odontolite, bone turquoise.^[5]
• 1853 – the colour.^[5][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A blue to greenish-blue mineral, a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, prized as a gemstone.^[8][3][5]
2. A greenish-blue colour.^[8][3][5]

Adjective

1. Of a greenish-blue colour: a turquoise scarf.^[8][3]
2. Made of turquoise, or set with turquoises.^[3]

Word family

• bone turquoise

Related words

• Turk
• Turkish

Usage notes

The OED records much variation in the pronunciation: Ben Jonson stressed the first syllable (turkise), as did Johnson (turkois) and, with turkis, Milton and Tennyson, while 19th-century dictionaries also gave a pronunciation rhyming with seize.^[5] Collins gives a British pronunciation ending in /-kwɑːz/ beside /-kwɔɪz/.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.