esmeralda

Forms

esmeralda f (plural esmeraldas)^[1] Houaiss and Cunha record esmeralda and ezmeralda in the 14th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin smaragdus (“emerald”), from Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smáragdos).^[2][3][4][5] Aurélio starts from a feminine Vulgar Latin *smaragda.^[6] Nunes starts from *smaralda, and Cornu set up an intermediate stage *esmerauda.^[7] The ⟨g⟩ was treated as in sagma, the source of enxalmo, and the noun turned feminine like ametista, opala and safira, perhaps after pedra.^[4][7] The initial ⟨e⟩ is the prothetic vowel Vulgar Latin put before ⟨s⟩ and a consonant, as in escudo and estudo.^[8]

Others think it is borrowed from Old French esmeralde, the Old French form of French émeraude: so Wiktionary, Porto Editora and the DLE for the Spanish word, and Machado, as cited by the DDGM, makes it a Gallicism.^{[1][9][10][11]} Nascentes notes that the stressed ⟨e⟩ could be French.^[4] French had esmaragde in 1121–1124 and esmeraude by 1176–1181.^[12]

The same Latin word is Spanish esmeralda, Catalan maragda, Occitan esmerauda and Italian smeraldo.^[13][14] Spanish has esmaragde about 1250 and the present form about 1295.^[15] Greek also had the form μάραγδος (máragdos).^[16] The Greek word is a borrowing from a Semitic language, related to Biblical Hebrew בָּרֶקֶת (baréket, “emerald, flashing gem”) and Akkadian barāqum (“to shine”), and the source of Sanskrit मरकत (marakata).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Galician charter of 1326 reserves a ezmeralda que fuy de meu padre “the emerald that was my father's”.^[11] The Crónica Geral of 1344 tells of a green bowl d'esmeralda “of emerald”, and the Crónica Troiana lists emeralds among twelve precious stones and in a gold crown set with emeralds and rubies.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau derived the name from a Greek verb “to shine”, and distinguished the Oriental emerald from the larger but less brilliant Occidental stones of Peru and Europe.^[17] Vieira derived it from a Sanskrit word meaning “heart of stone”.^[18] The word also names the stone's green colour, and as an adjective it means “emerald-green”.^[19][6] Houaiss records a 19th-century popular dance like the polka, and Figueiredo and Aurélio a variety of the bird of paradise.^[2][20][6] Esmeralda is also a woman's name.^[21][1]

Timeline

• 1326 – ezmeralda in a Galician charter.^[11]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral has d'esmeralda.^[11]
• after 1525 – the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana uses the word.^[22]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses it smaragdus.^[23]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists it as a precious stone and gives smaragdinus “made of emeralds”.^[24]
• 17th century – first record of esmeraldino.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes Oriental and Occidental emeralds.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. emerald: a precious stone, usually green, a transparent variety of beryl (berilo): um anel de esmeraldas.^[6][3][1]
2. The bright green colour of this stone.^[6][25]
3. (zoology) A variety of bird of paradise.^[6][25]
4. (music) A popular 19th-century dance like the polka.^[2][19]

Adjective

1. Having the green colour of the emerald; emerald-green: olhos esmeralda.^[2][6]

Word family

• esmeraldino

Related words

• Latin smaragdus
• Spanish esmeralda
• French émeraude

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. esmeralda
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. esmeralda
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. esmeralda
5. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. esmeralda
6. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. esmeralda
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. esmeralda
8. ^ Williams, Edwin B. (1938), From Latin to Portuguese: Historical Phonology and Morphology of the Portuguese Language, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. § 71
9. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3848
10. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. esmeralda
11. ^ a b c d e Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. esmeralda
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. émeraude
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8041
14. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. smaragdus
15. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esmeralda
16. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. σμάραγδος
17. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. esmeralda
18. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 307
19. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. esmeralda
20. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 547
21. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. esmeralda
22. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. esmeralda
23. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. esmeralda
24. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. esmeralda
25. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. esmeralda