jade

The story of 'jade' begins with a Spanish medical belief. The Spanish phrase 'piedra de ijada' referred to a hard stone thought to cure ailments of the 'ijada' (the flank or loins). When this term was borrowed into French as 'l'ejade' and later 'le jade', the initial connection to the body part was lost, and the word was clipped to simply denote the stone itself. In English, the word first appeared in the early 18th century, retaining the core meaning of the ornamental mineral. The later, archaic meanings for a worn-out horse and the act of tiring someone derive metaphorically from the stone's perceived heaviness and lack of vitality, showcasing a typical semantic shift from a concrete object to an abstract quality.

The word 'jade' is a simplex loanword. It entered English from French, which derived it from the Spanish term 'piedra de ijada' (literally 'stone of the flank'), due to the belief it could cure colic. The Spanish 'ijada' (flank) comes from Latin 'ilia', meaning 'flanks' or 'loins'.