ágata

Forms

ágata f (plural ágatas)^[1] Alfonso X's General estoria (1272–1275) has the Latin-looking form achate.^[2] DEMel lists agada in the Gran conquista de Ultramar (c. 1295) and agata, agatha and Agate in later medieval texts.^[3] Enrique de Villena (died 1433) wrote agates, and ácates is found between 1594 and 1624.^[4] Spellings without an accent (agata) occur from about 1475 to 1888, and agatha in 1601 and 1778; the stress agáta is never attested with certainty.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin achātēs (“agate”),^[4][6][7][8] which is from Ancient Greek ἀχάτης (akhátēs).^[4][9] Lewis and Short report Pliny's explanation of the name, after the Achates, a river in Sicily where the stone was first found;^[10][1] Wiktionary calls the Greek word of uncertain origin.^[10][1]

Corominas and the Academy's historical dictionary put the stress on the first syllable and the feminine gender down to a folk-etymological link with ἀγαθή (agathḗ, “good”).^[4][5] The Academy's 2001 dictionary instead derives the word from an old agata, with its stress taken from the woman's name Ágata, and traces that form through Old French agathe and achate to the Latin.^[7]

The same word is Portuguese ágata, Catalan àgata, French agate and Italian agata.^{[11][12][13][1]} Coromines explains the Catalan form by the same influence of the Greek word for “good”.^[12][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the General estoria (1272–1275) Alfonso X lists la achate among the twelve precious stones of the high priest's breastplate, in its third row with la ligurio and la amatisto.^[2] The sense is already the gemstone, agate.^[2] Corominas's first record is Villena's agates (before 1433), and the modern form ágata appears in Laguna (died 1560).^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the stone.^[15][8] Autoridades (1726) describes it as a white precious stone with veins of other colours that form figures, repeats that it was named after the river Achates in Sicily, and quotes Laguna on its power against scorpion stings and Gracián on King Pyrrhus's agate showing the nine Muses and Apollo.^[15] From 1884 the Academy defines it as a hard, translucent quartz with bands or layers of colour.^[16][17] Moliner notes a wider use for all the varieties of silica that are cut as ornamental stones for their colours, and a narrower one for the banded kinds.^[8] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1536, in Mexico City, in the description of a jewel.^[18]

Timeline

• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria has la achate among the stones of the breastplate.^[2]
• c. 1295 – DEMel records agada in the Gran conquista de Ultramar.^[3]
• c. 1380 – the Catalan àgates appears in Eiximenis.^[12]
• c. 1430 – Villena writes agates;^[18] Corominas's first record.^[4][6]
• 1536 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[18]
• 1560 – the form ágata in Laguna (died that year).^[4]
• 1726 – Autoridades enters ágata with the story of the river Achates.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as a variety of quartz.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. agate: a hard, translucent variety of quartz with bands or layers of different colours, used in jewellery.^[7][19][1]
2. In a wider sense, any of the coloured varieties of silica used as ornamental stones.^[8]

Related words

• Latin achātēs

Usage notes

Ágata is feminine, a gender Corominas puts down to the influence of the Greek word for “good”.^[4] Because it begins with a stressed á, it takes el in the singular, as in Vox's own definition: el ágata, but las ágatas.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. ágata
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. agata
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 72
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. ágata
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ágata
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ágata
8. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
12. ^ a b c Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 71
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
14. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
18. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial