Sterling Silver Jewelry: The Modern Etymology Of Sapphire

The earliest written records that show conclusive proof of both the words Sapphire, and lapis lazuli being used to describe the gems as we know them today, comes from the 12th Century A.D. ‘Silk Road’ travelogue: The Travels of Marco Polo. Marco Polo was born in Venice in 1254 A.D., and was only six years old when he set out on his first trip to China. At the age of seventeen Marco, accompanied by his uncle and brother, set out for China again. They passed from southern Europe through Armenia, Georgia, Persia, Afghanistan and into what was Turkestan.

It was during his travels through the latter area, now known as Badakhshan in Afghanistan, that Marco Polo fell ill, and was forced to stay for one year to regain his strength. During this time he made many excursions into the surrounding areas, and in doing so came across the now famous Badakhshan lapis lazuli mines, which were a recorded source of the blue gemstone for ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia as far back as 3500 B.C.

“We went three days journey from thence, without meeting any inhabitants, to the province of Balaxiam, Balascia or Balasagan, which is inhabited by Mahometans, who have a peculiar language…In this country the famous Ballas rubies are found, and other precious stones of great value, particularly in Sicinam…In other mountains of the same province, the best lapis lazuli in the world is found, from which azure or ultramarine is made.” In this passage Polo refers to lapis lazuli, the same gemstone that the ancients previously referred to as ‘Sapphirus’. Literally translated lapis lazuli means stone of ‘Azure’, the word we now use to refer to a shade of blue. The modern English ‘Azure’ is derived from the French ‘Lazur’, in turn originating from the Arabic ‘Al-lazaward’ and the Persian ‘Lajward’, named after the city of Lajward in Turkestan where lapis lazuli was mined. The Lajward lapis lazuli deposits were sourced from the 12th to 14th Centuries.

In this period, the Persians had a particular type of pottery called ‘Lajvardina’, which were ceramic vases with a dark blue glaze that was made from a dye derived from lapis lazuli. Another word Polo uses to describe the ‘Azure’ dye in his writings was Ultramarine; this described the same blue pigment made from lapis lazuli. Literally translated Ultramarine meant ‘Ultra’-‘Beyond’ and ‘Marinus’-‘Of the sea’, because lapis lazuli was imported to Europe from distant Asia by sea.

After his convalescence, Marco Polo resumed his travels visiting China where he served as translator at the court of Kublai Khan. He became one of the emperor’s favorites, being appointed high posts in his administration and was sent on a number of special missions in China, Burma and India. It was during his travels from Burma to India that he visited the island of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

“Sailing from Angaman 1000 miles west, and a little to the south, we come to the island of Zelan or Ceylon…This is the finest island in the world, and its king is called Sendernaz…They grow no corn except rice; and they have plenty of oil of sesame, milk, flesh, palm wine, Brazil wood, the best rubies in the world, sapphires, topazes, amethysts, and other gems.” These two passages from Polo’s travels act as comparative proof: one showing lapis lazuli originating from the Badakhshan mines in Afghanistan, the other showing Sapphires originating from Ceylon. Marco Polo’s texts give conclusive evidence that a clear distinction had been made between the two gem types, and that their use was current in Europe by at least the end of 12th Century.

After serving 17 years in Kublai Khan’s court, and accumulating great wealth in jewels and gems, Marco made the perilous 2-year journey back to Venice. Three years after Marco returned to Venice, he fought in a war against the rival city of Genoa and was captured. Marco Polo spent a year in a Genoese prison where a fellow inmate, a writer of romances named Rustichello, noted Marco’s travel stories.

After being published Marco's book became the most influential travelogue on the Silk Road ever written in a European language, paving the way for thousands of Westerners into the east for centuries to come. However, his travels into the mystic east weren’t rivaled for another 600 years, remaining the most comprehensive written documentation of Asia for that period of time.

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Written for SilverShake, an online retailer of gemstone silver jewelry and sterling silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!

Sterling Silver Jewelry: The Ancient Etymology Of Sapphire

The ancestry of the word Sapphire is obscured by thousands of years of etymological growth, and its roots entangled with names used to describe other gemstones both ancient and modern. Although it surfaces in many of mankind’s earliest texts, it is probable that what many of the ancients in Europe and the Near East recorded as being Sapphire is now what we call lapis lazuli. To make matters even more complicated, the gem that ancients referred to as Oriental Amethyst was probably the gem that we know as Sapphire...

The modern English word Sapphire originates from the Latin ‘Sapphirus’, which in turn is derived from the Greek ‘Sappheiros.’ The Greek word ‘Sappheiros’ originated from ancient Hebrew texts and their word ‘Sappir’ meaning precious stone. It is quite possible that this Hebrew term was introduced into the Greek language as a direct result of the translation of the Bible’s Old Testament, which was translated from Judaic and Aramaic into Greek in Ptolemaic Alexandria circa 300 B.C. Written and compiled from 1500 B.C. to 90 A.D., the Bible’s old and new testaments provide us with what is perhaps the earliest written record of the Hebrew word ‘Sappir’. It appears in the Bible’s oldest book, the Book of Job, chapter 28 verse 6 which dates from approximately 1400 B.C: “The stones thereof are the place of sapphires, and it hath dust of gold.”


From beginning to end, the two books of the Bible include passages that draw parallels between the glinting stars in the blue firmament of the heavens and the Sapphire. However, as most gemologists and etymologists agree the description of ‘Job’s’ gem containing “…dust of gold”, does not describe the physical properties of what we call Sapphire.

This corundum conundrum is further compounded in the works of the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, successor to Alexander the Greats' tutor Aristotle, and the world’s first mineralogist, who in 314 BC wrote: "…the sapphirus, is speckled as if with gold". A similar observation was made some three hundred years later in 77 A.D. by ‘Pliny the Elder’, who wrote the world’s first encyclopedia entitled ‘Natural History’. In chapter 37 of the ninth book Pliny states: "…for the Saphirrus also glittereth with markes and prickes of gold." Both of these descriptions provide almost irrefutable evidence that the ‘Sapphirus’ of the ancients with its golden properties was not our Sapphire, but what we now call lapis lazuli.

Lapis Lazuli, translated from Latin as ‘Stone of Azure’, was a prolific gemstone found in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian burial sites dating as far back as 3000 B.C. Lapis Lazuli fits the ancient gemstone descriptions of Sapphire because in its normal state it contains particles of a mineral called Iron Pyrites. This mineral is also known as ‘Fools Gold’, because of its close resemblance and subsequent confusion with gold.

Ironically, the answer to our quest for Sapphire’s earliest roots may lie in the same book by Pliny. However, it lies in an earlier chapter that describes one of the four varieties of a gem variety that was known to the ancients as Indian or Oriental Amethyst. Pliny states: “… A third stone (Variety of Oriental Amethyst) of this class is of a more diluted color, and is known as ‘Sapenos’…” Although, there is a lack of conclusive proof, Pliny’s description of ‘Sapenos’ as a type of bluish-violet Amethyst appears to be far closer both in etymological name, color and geographical location to what we now know as Sapphire. It is quite probable that Pliny's description of ‘Sapenos', as a type of Oriental Amethyst, was the birth of the term we now use for the modern Sapphire.

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Written for SilverShake, an online retailer of gemstone silver jewelry and sterling silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!

Sterling Silver Jewelry: The Etymology Of Peridot

Used as an item of adornment from more than 2300 years, Peridot has been called amongst others: Pitdah, Topazion, Topazos, Topaz, Chrysolite, Olivine, Evening Emerald and Gem of the Sun.

In 300 B.C., a group of seventy-two rabbis called the Septuagint was commissioned by the Greek Pharaoh of Egypt, Ptolemy II, to translate ancient Hebrew texts into Greek. These manuscripts were included into the library of Alexandria, and became known as the Old Testament.

According to the Septuagint, the Hebrew word ‘Pitdah’ featured in these texts could be translated as Topazion: the Greek word for bright green gems named after their source the Island of Topazion. Today, this Island is known as Zabargad and is a reputed ancient source for Peridot. In 1611 A.D., two thousand years later, Topazion was translated into English in the King James Old Testament as Topaz. For these reasons alone, our Peridot was known for more than two millenniums as Topaz. But what of the actual word Peridot and its etymological roots?

The origin of the word Peridot itself is unclear, but one thing is sure, the term was not in existence before the 1st Century A.D. In what is perhaps the world’s first encyclopedia, the famous Roman historian Pliny clearly referred to a bright green gem from the Island of Zabargad as 'Topazion' or ‘Topazos’. In fact this term was used to denote Peridot up until the fall of the Roman Empire. However, during Pliny’s time it was not uncommon that gemstones received more than one name, and that unrelated gems share names in common.

One such generic appendage was ‘Paederos’ (Greek for: ‘Beautiful Youth’), or the later version of ‘Pederote,’ (Latin: pronounced Ped-or-oat): employed by Pliny to denote amongst others amethyst and opal. In fact the less discerning Roman public used ‘Pederote’ to refer to most good-looking gems.

Towards the end of the Roman Empire, Western Europe fell to the barbarians, but in the Near East Roman culture survived within the Byzantine Empire. Under the Byzantines, words and languages bequeathed by the previous Greek and Roman cultures were continued. Similarly art and culture prospered, especially the skills of the lapidaries. However, soon enough the East became the envy of the West, and under the pious concept of reuniting Christendom with the West, the crusades began. France, at the fore of the eight crusades taking place between the 10th and the 12th Centuries, was represented in the Holy Lands by the Templar Knights.

During the two centuries the Templars amassed great wealth, returning to Europe with their newly acquired booty of precious metals, jewelry and gemstones: amongst which, was a comparitvley unknown golden green gemstone called ‘Pederote.’

It was during the crusades of the medieval period that a perversion of the word ‘Pederote’ resurfaced. It appeared in the French book ‘Les Lapidaries Français,’ written sometime between 1100 and 1250 A.D. The ‘Lapidaire Français,' was written specifically for the use by the educated Norman aristocracy, who also occupied England at the time. The book outlined 60 gems giving their medicinal value, magical properties and moral significations: one of the featured gems was the ‘Pedoretés’ (pronounced Peh-door-ray). The first recorded instance of this word in popular use by the aristocracy appears in a 11th Century message written by the French lord, Mont Cassin de Solinus, where he uses a word to describe a green gemstone: ‘Perodote’ (pronounced Peh-roh-doh).

However, comparing Solinus' later ‘Perodote' (Peh-roh-doh) with the earlier ‘Lapidaire Français' ‘Pedoretés' (Peh-door-ray), we can hear and see that there has been a reversal of the second and third syllable. In linguistics this is called a ‘Metathesis': a phenomenon where two sounds appearing in particular order in one word, overtime will occur in the reverse order in the same word. French etymologists from the ‘Académie Français’ believe that this explains the shift in the two words.

The excerpt above was taken from a later book ‘Lapidaire Des Pierres Gravées’ documenting the etymology of Peridot in France from the 13th Century onwards. It gives Peridot’s name during the 13th Century as ‘Peridol’ (pronounced Peh-rii-dole), and as ‘Peridon’ (pronounced Peh-rii-dohn) during the later 14th Century. Translated it reads:

Peridon (Peridol) [Peridot gemstone, also called green-yellowish olivine. ‘A gem called peridon enclosed in gold.’ xx sols t, (invoice of the Duke of Berry, year 1416.)- viii ‘gemstones of which there were a grenas (garnet), a lopue, an ametiste (amethyst) and a peridol (peridot).’ [invoice of the Duke of Anjou year 1360.] ”

As mentioned before, the Norman French occupied England during this period, and the aristocracy imposed their language upon their English subjects. This greatly influenced the development of the English language: causing Old French words to be assimilated into the Middle English language. However, Peridot wasn’t the only alias to be appropriated to the green gemstone from these sources.

Up until the 19th Century A.D., another Greek word was also used to denote Peridot and gemstones similar in aspect: Chrysolite. This originally came from the Greek ‘Khrysolithos’, ‘Khryso’ meaning golden and ‘Lithos’ meaning stone. It transformed into ‘Chrysolithus’ in Latin, and ‘Crisolite’ in Old French, eventually becoming ‘Chrysolite’ in Middle English.

The French poet Philippe de Thaon wrote the following excerpt in 1112 A.D.: ‘Crisolite ure celeste, qui ourent out vie terrestre.’ Translated the passage reads: ‘Chrysolite the celestial happiness, which they had with the terrestrial life.’ However, there is no conclusive proof to indicate that he was talking of our Peridot, as Chrysolite was also used to describe the majority of all yellow to yellow-green transparent gemstones including: Topaz, prehnite, apatite, sapphire, chrysoberyl, beryl, tourmaline, and andradite garnet. By today’s standards such an inaccurate, generic term is disused.

A similar term of equally broad connotations was also appropriated to Peridot: Olivine. This originated from the Greek ‘Elaiw’ or ‘Elai’, transforming to the Latin ‘Olva’ and eventually to the French ‘Olivine’. In 17th Century France Olivine was a jeweler’s term for a variety of Chrysolite, today it is a term used to denote one of the most common mineral types on the Earth’s surface, a magnesium/iron silicate in which the ratio of magnesium and iron vary between the two mineral extremities: Forsterite (Mg2SiO4) and Fayalite (Fe2SiO4). Peridot is actually a rare sub-species of the Olivine group: Forsterite-Olivine. Forsterite, the mineralogical term used to denote the Olivine species of Peridot, was named in honor of the German mineralogist J. R. Forster.

It is important to state that the etymological theories on these pages are speculative, and should not be taken as gospel.

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Written for SilverShake, an online retailer of silver peridot jewelry and sterling silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!