Also 8 jadde, 9 jad. [= F. le jade (1667 in Hatz.-Darm.), for l’ejade (Voiture, 1633) = It. iada (Florio, 1598), ad. Sp. ijada in piedra de ijada or yjada (Monardes, 1569), lit. ‘colic stone,’ f. ijada, yjada, ‘the small ribs, the collike, the flanke’ (Minsheu); cf. the synonym NEPHRITE, f. Gr. νεφροί kidneys, reins.
The transformation of F. l’ejade fem. into le jade masc. was an error made when the word was as yet unfamiliar: see Athenæum (1900), 20 Oct., 513/1.]
1. A name given to two distinct minerals which from their hardness have been used for implements and ornaments. a. Nephrite, a silicate of lime and magnesia, a hard, translucent stone, in color light green, bluish or whitish; b. Jadeite, a silicate of sodium and aluminium, closely resembling nephrite in appearance. Sometimes also applied to SAUSSURITE. Oceanic, Oriental jade (see quot. 1881).
[1569. Monardes, Cosas de las Indias, (heading) De la Piedra de la Yj da. Ibid. Tiene esta piedra por propriedad oculta,… de preservar que no caygan en el dolor de la Yjada.
1595. Raleigh, Discov. Guiana, 24. A kinde of greene stones, which the Spaniards call Piedras Hijadas, and we vse for spleene stones.
1598. Florio, Iada, a kinde of precious stone like an emerauld.
1633. Voiture, Wks., Let. to Mdle. Paulet (1665), 47. Ainsi pour ce coup, l’Ejade a eu pour vous vn effet que vous n’attendiez pas d’elle.]
1657. J. D[avies], trans. Voiture’s Lett., xxiv. 37. So that for this time, L’Ejade hath had for you an effect which you expected not from it. Ibid., xlii. 79. I perceive there must be found out for me some more substantial remedies than the Ejade [mispr. Ejacle].
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Jade, a greenish stone, bordering on olive colour, much esteemed for its hardness…. This stone applied to the reins is said to be a preservative from the nephritic colic.
1751. Sir J. Hill, Materia Med., 271. (J.). The Jade, or Divine Stone.… It is a Stone of extreme Hardness,… for it is a true Species of Jasper…. It takes a very elegant and high Polish…. It … is consumed among the Turks … for Handles of their Sabres.
1777. G. Forster, Voy. round World, I. 161. A piece of green nephritic stone, or jadde.
1823. Rutter, Fonthill, 51. A sceptre of jad, brought from China.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, 20. Here, also … hatchets and wedges of jade have been observed.
1868. Dana, Min. (ed. 3), 293. Jadeite is one of the kinds of pale stones used in China for making ornaments, and passing under the general name of jade or nephrite.
1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts, III. 6. A third mineral, originally described by H. B. de Saussure as a jade, was termed Saussurite by T. de Saussure: this was the jade tenace of Haüy and the early French mineralogists.
1881. F. W. Rudler, in Encycl. Brit., XIII. 540/1. Under the name of ‘oceanic jade,’ M. Damour has described a fibrous variety found in New Caledonia and in the Marquesas Islands … differing from ordinary nephrite in the proportion of lime and magnesia which it contains. Ibid., 540/2. If this oceanic jade be recognized as a distinct variety, the ordinary nephrite may be distinguished as ‘oriental jade.’
2. a. attrib. (as a material of ornaments and implements, especially of prehistoric times).
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times (1869), 155. A square chamber, in which were eleven beautiful jade celts.
1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts, III. 7. The so-called jade pebbles of Iona are nothing more than serpentinous marble.
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, II. 92. She sent a malachite cabinet and some grand jade vases.
1881. Nature, 20 Oct., 599/1. This is the first find of jade implements in graves in Russia.
1881. F. W. Rudler, in Encycl. Brit., XIII. 540/2. Jade celts have been found by Dr. Schliemann among the relics of the oldest of the cities at Hissarlik.
b. Comb., as jade-carver, -quarry; jade-green adj. Also JADE-STONE.
1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts, III. 7. The jade-quarries on the Kara-kash River have been visited and described by Dr. Cayley.
1880. Daily Tel., 18 Sept., 3/1. The rarest handicraft of the jeweller, the jade-carver, [etc.].
1892. R. Kipling, in Pall Mall Gaz., 24 March, 3/2. The jade-green rivers with the oily swirls in them that run through the bush.
