Meaning

noun a green transparent form of beryl; highly valued as a gemstone

noun a transparent piece of emerald that has been cut and polished and is valued as a precious gem

noun the green color of an emerald

originFrom Middle English emeraude, borrowed from Old French esmeraude, from Vulgar Latin *smaralda, *smaraldus, *smaraudus, variant of Latin smaragdus, from Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smáragdos), μάραγδος (máragdos), from a Semitic language. Compare Hebrew בָּרֶקֶת (bāréqeṯ, “emerald, flashing gem”), Akkadian 𒁀𒊏𒄣 (baraqu, literally “scintillation”), Arabic بَرْق (barq, literally “flashing”), Egyptian…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0