Beryl is a hard mineral that includes emerald and aquamarine. A vein of beryl, beryl crystals, pale beryl.
The gemstones are the same mineral in different colours: traces of chromium make emerald green and iron makes aquamarine blue. Crystals of beryl grow in six-sided columns and can reach several metres. The word also gave us brilliant and, through German, spectacles.
1nounberylA hard mineral that includes emerald and aquamarine.
“The mineral collection included a pale green crystal of beryl.”
beryl is a mineral.
Greek beryllos names the stone, probably from a Sanskrit or Prakrit word for a place in southern India.
pra
𑀯𑁂𑀭𑀼𑀮𑀺𑀅
pi
veḷuriya
Ancient Greek
βήρυλλος — beryl
Latin
bērillus
Old French
beril
Middle English
beryl
English, today
beryl
Middle English beryl, from Old French beril, from Latin bērillus, bēryllus, from Ancient Greek βήρυλλος (“beryl”), in turn borrowed from Middle Indic forms like pi veḷuriya or pra 𑀯𑁂𑀭𑀼𑀮𑀺𑀅, from dra, probably named after Velur (modern day Belur) in southern India.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA