SMARAGD

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 29 September 2011

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SMARAGD  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) an emerald
2. (n.) any precious stone of a bright green color

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -E, -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: -ES, -ITE, -ITES
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: SMARAGDE (n.)
• Related Forms: SMARAGDINE (adj.), SMARAGDITE (n.)

Epilogue:
Strange though it may seem, SMARAGD and EMERALD are essentially the same word, both deriving from the ancient Greek smaragdos and ultimately from even more ancient Hebrew and Akkadian forms.  SMARAGD came down through the ages relatively unpolished, while EMERALD passed through Latin and French forms (esmaragde became esmeraude became esmeralde and so on) before entering English as a different-looking word.  Today SMARAGD has the distinction of being the only current English word ending in -GD, and the adjectival form SMARAGDINE (“pertaining to an emerald, or of an emerald-like green color”) is both poetic and useful, especially since the equally logical emeraldine somehow never caught on as a legitimate word.

This week’s theme: Words starting with the letter S

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