Etymograph

English

agate

Agate comes from Middle French agathe, and goes back to Ancient Greek ἀχάτης.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἀχάτηςakhátēs
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEachatēs
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600agathe
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1831agate

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἀχάτηςakhátēs
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEachatēs
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600agathe
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1831agate

Earliest quotation: 1831, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley: “The ends of the veil, drawn over her head,…”

Every English word from Ancient Greek ἀχάτης

Today it means

noun A semitransparent, uncrystallized silicate mineral and semiprecious stone, presenting various tints in the same specimen, with colors delicately arranged and often curved in parallel alternating dark and light stripes or bands, or blended in clouds; various authorities call it a variety of chalcedony, a variety of quartz, or a combination of the two.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek ἀχάτης / agate

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