Oxford, March 11. 1850.
{340}
_Emerald_ (No. 14. p. 217.).--Before we puzzle ourselves with the
meaning of a thing, it is well to consider whether the authority _may_
not be very loose and inaccurate. This _emerald cross_, even if it was
made of emeralds, might have been in several pieces. But we are told
generally, in Phillips's _Mineralogy_, that "the large emeralds spoken
of by various writers, such as that in the Abbey of Richenau, of the
weight of 28 lbs., and which formerly belonged to Charlemagne, are
believed to be either green fluor, or prase. The most magnificent
specimen of genuine emeralds was presented to the Church of Loretto
by one of the Spanish kings. It consists of a mass of white quartz,
thickly implanted with emeralds, more than an inch in diameter."
The note to the above exemplifies what I have just said. It is called
_emerald_, he says, because it is _green_, from the Greek. I might
make a query of this; but it is clearly a mistake of some half-learned
or ill-understood informant. The name has nothing to do with green.
_Emerald_, in Italian _smeraldo_, is, I dare say, from the Greek
_smaragdus_. It is derived, according to the Oxford _Lexicon_, from
[Greek: mairo], to shine, whence [Greek: marmarugae]. In looking for
this, I find another Greek word, _smirix_, which is the origin of
_emery_, having the same meaning. It is derived from [Greek: smao],
to rub, or make bright. I cannot help suspecting that the two radical
verbs are connected.