Precious

Precious (pronounced presh-uhs)

(1) Of high price or great value; very valuable or costly.

(2) Highly esteemed for some spiritual, nonmaterial, or moral quality.

(3) Affectedly or excessively delicate, refined, or nice; fastidious in speech and manners.

(4) Anything though extreme (now rare and usually used only in clichéd forms).

(5) As precious and semi-precious, descriptors used in the gem-stone trade.

1250–1300: From the Middle English preciose (valuable, of great worth or price, costly) from the eleventh century Old French precios (precious, costly, honourable, of great worth), from the Latin pretiōsus (costly, valuable), the construct being pretium (price, value, worth) + ōsus or ous.  The Latin suffix -ōsus or ous (full, full of) was used to form adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree, commonly in abundance.  It was picked up in Middle English as -ous, from the Old French –ous & -eux.  The Modern French is précieux.

The meaning "over-refined" dates from the late fourteenth century and Dr Johnson noted it also had a secondary inverted sense of "worthless" whereas today, that’s a pure antonym.  As applied to a "beloved or dear person or object", meaning in that sense was first noted in 1706.  Related forms include preciously (adverb) & preciousness (noun).  The formal division of the gemstone market into precious and semi-precious dates from 1858, adopting the division introduced in the metals trade in 1776, precious metals then defined as gold, silver and sometimes platinum, the parameters being those rare enough to be used as a standard of value yet sufficiently abundant enough to permit use for coinage (the category of the semi-precious metal was introduced in 1818).  The idea of a person or object being precious in the sense of "beloved or highly valued” emerged early in the eighteenth century and was based on the earlier adjectival use.  The now rare noun preciosity (value, great worth, preciousness, quality of being precious) from the Old French preciosite and directly from the Medieval Latin pretiocitas (costliness, a costly thing), from pretiosus was from circa 1400.

The equally rare noun precieuse (pedantic woman, woman aiming at refined delicacy of language and taste) was in 1727 borrowed by English from French and was from the French précieuse, noun use of the feminine of précieux.  In English, it was best known as a stereotypical character in Molière's (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, circa 1622-1763) 1659 comedy of manners Les Précieuses ridicules (The Affected Young Ladies).

Precious & semi-precious gemstones

Although the notion of a hierarchy pre-dates modern civilization, gemstones were first classified into the categories of precious and semi-precious in the mid-nineteenth century.  Originally an internal system of classification used by the gemstone trade, the distinction became popular and use widespread.

Precious was applied to four types of gems: diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.  As early as the 1880s, some traders, doubtlessly seeking commercial advantage, applied the label to other stones including opal, jade and pearls but most of the industry regards this as mere puffery and use has never become persistent or generally accepted.  Nor have buyers been persuaded; diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds account for well over ninety percent of the US$ dollar value of gemstone turnover; although not as widely applied, the four are known also as the cardinal stones.

Semi-precious is used for all varieties of gemstones not categorized as precious and any gemstone suitable for being used in personal adornment can be included. Semi-precious stones include gems fashioned from agate, amber, amethyst, aquamarine, aventurine, chalcedony, chrysocolla, chrysoprase, citrine, garnet, hematite, jade, jasper, jet, kunzite, lapis lazuli, malachite, moonstone, obsidian, onyx, peridot, rhodonite, sunstone, tiger's eye, tanzanite, topaz, turquoise, tourmaline and many other materials.

What can be misleading or confusing is the classification is inherently hierarchical and suggests correlation with cost.  An opal has been sold at US$5500 per carat and both jade cabochons and red beryls have traded US$10,000 a carat, all prices higher than that at which most precious stones sell.  Nor should precious imply scarcity, many semi-precious stones more rare than the precious four; red beryl, ammolite, benitoite, gem silica, demantoid garnet and tsavorite garnet are all found in fewer locations and produced in smaller quantities than any of the precious stones.

Such apparent anomalies are not unusual in classification systems, especially the older sets.  In geology the elements described as rare earths aren’t especially rare and in arboreal taxonomy, the soft, light balsa is a hardwood.  So, although not entirely arbitrary and meaningless, the classification of gemstones is best considered jargon of the trade although the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) has in their code of ethics a clause that members should avoid the use of the term ”semi-precious” in describing gemstones.  The view of the association is that a term like semi-precious tends to devalue the objects and they’d prefer to have just about all gems thought of as “precious” (and therefore expensive).

Nor does the notion of the four precious gems have long history.  One stone regarded as precious since antiquity was amethyst but it fell from favor when large deposits were found in South America; the introduction of semi-precious into the lexicon corresponding with the new discoveries.  Of all stones, diamond is the most mythologized, mostly of modern origin.  Historically, colored stones such as ruby and sapphire were more highly valued than diamond, because diamond was not particularly rare.   That changed in the twentieth century when, counter-intuitively, large finds in South Africa created an abundant supply of gem-quality diamonds.  Until the South African boom, worldwide production of diamond amounted only to a few kilograms per year.  After huge South African mines opened in 1870, output began to be measured by the ton, causing such a glut the De Beers cartel was formed to control supply.  Quality diamonds are not at all scarce but De Beers’ control kept prices high and their near monopoly endured until 2005; even today they control over a third of world trade.  They also generated demand.  Until De Beers lavished spending on advertising, the diamond engagement ring was almost unknown; now, it’s an almost essential part of the marriage ritual.  The diamond's special position as a precious stone is due largely to monopoly economics and social engineering.

Ruby was from the Middle English ruby, rubie, rubi & rube, from the Old French rubi, from the Latin rubinus lapis (red stone) & rubeus (red) (feminine rubea, neuter rubeum) from rubeō (I am red, reddish).  The Latin rubeus was the source also of the Italian rubino and in related to ruber, from the primitive Indo-European root reudh- (red, ruddy).  It came to be applied as a name for a pure or somewhat crimson-red color from the 1570s.  There’s no etymological explanation for the Modern French rubis (ruby) beyond a assumption the plural was mistaken for the singular and caught on.

A pink to blood-red colored stone, the ruby, like the sapphire, is a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide).  The ruby’s deep red hue and vibrant glow is because of the presence of the element chromium but, more romantically, it carries the color of love and desire, a quality perhaps reflected in the prices the stone attracts at auction, the ruby tending to command the highest per-carat value of all colored gems.  A particular attraction of the pure ruby are the thin inclusions called needles which, when intersecting in groups, create a phenomenon called “silk” which softens the color causing the light to scatter in intricate patterns across the facets.  Ruby is the birthstone for July and the gem of the fifteenth and fortieth wedding anniversaries.

Emerald was from the early twelfth century Middle English emeraude, from the earlier Old French esmeraude, from the Medieval Latin esmaralda & esmaraldus, from the Classical Latin smaragdus, from the Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smaragdos) (green gem or malachite), from the Semitic baraq (shine).  It was influenced by the Hebrew bareqeth (emerald) and the Arabic barq (lightning).  The Sanskrit maragdam (emerald) was from the same source, as was Persian zumurrud, from which Turkish gained zümrüd, source of Russian izumrud (emerald).  Historians caution that many mediæval references to the precious stones are not reliable except as a (sometimes vague) reference to color and this is said to apply especially to the emerald.  Ireland, came to be known as the Emerald Isle from 1795, the linkage because, with a high rainfall and a temperate climate, it’s a very green island.  The emerald was the favourite stone of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.

A cyclosilicate and a variety of the mineral beryl and colored green by tiny quantities of chromium and sometimes vanadium, emeralds are not an especially tough stone so their resistance to breakage is classified by cutters as poor.  For this reason, jewellers often mount emeralds differently, using the shape or thickness of the supporting metal to afford the stone greater protection.  The particular quality of the structure of the emerald is the often-seen intricate inclusion called the “jardin” (French for “garden”) which appear in multiples and demand a special technique from those cutting the stone; gem cutters thus developed the “emerald cut” which lends the cut stone its distinctive rectangular or square shape.  Those who cut gem stones are formerly styled lapidaries but the more evocative “cutters” seem both preferred and better.  Emerald is the birthstone for May and the gem of the twentieth and thirty-fifth wedding anniversaries.

Sapphire is from the mid-thirteenth century Middle English saphir, from the early thirteenth century Old French saphir, from the Latin sapphir, sappir & sapphīrus (blue), from the Ancient Greek σάπφειρος (sáppheiros) (precious stone, blue gem), from a Semitic language.  The Hebrew סַפִּיר‎ (sappī́r) was perhaps from a non-Semitic source such as the Sanskrit शनिप्रिय (śanipriya) (dark-colored stone, perhaps a sapphire or emerald, literally “dear to Saturn”, the construct being Saturn + priyah (precious).  Some historians have speculated the Ancient Greek sappheiros, although meaning “blue stone" apparently referred to the "lapis lazuli", the modern sapphire being instead signified by the Greek hyakinthos; not all concur.  The Latin sapphirus was the source also of the Spanish zafir and the Italian zaffiro.  Among Renaissance lapidaries, the sapphire was said to cure anger and stupidity and, as sapphiric & sapphirine, assumed the role of adjective since the fifteenth century.

The sapphire is another variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide with trace quantities of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium.  A notably hard stone, the sapphire is third in hardness behind the diamond and moissanite and has some useful optical qualities which is why it’s used also in non-ornamental applications, such as infrared devices, wristwatch crystals and ultra- thin electronic wafers, used as the insulating substrates of specific-purpose solid-state electronics such as integrated circuits and blue LEDs, the latter of such importance the discovery of the processes which permitted its creation gained the responsible scientists the 2014 Nobel Prize for physics.

Although most associated with hues of blue, pure sapphires are actually white, but in the presence of titanium and iron traces they acquire their velvety blue shade and there’s long been a speculation there’s some link between the name and the planet Saturn.  Apart from the classic blue, there are the rarer “fancy sapphires” which exist in just about every color from green to pink (even a highly prized black and there are “parti sapphires” which display two or more colors) except for red; what would technically otherwise be a red sapphire is actually a ruby.  Known as the gemstones of wisdom, truth and justice, sapphire is the birthstone for September and the gem of the fifth and forty-fifth wedding anniversaries.  A sapphire jubilee happens after sixty-five years.

Diamond was from the mid-fourteenth century Middle English diamaunt & dyamaunt, from the Old French diamant, from the Late Latin diamantem (nominative diamas), from the Vulgar Latin adiamantem, from the Classical Latin adamantem (nominative adamans) (the hardest metal, later "diamond"), from the Ancient Greek ἀδάμας (adámas) (genitive adamantos) (diamond).  Adamantos was used also as the name of the hypothetical hardest material, noun use of an adjective meaning "unbreakable, inflexible”).  It was cognate with the Spanish imán (magnet) & diamante, the French aimant (magnet) & diamant, the Italian diamante, and the Portuguese ímã (magnet) and diamante.

Lindsay Lohan's engagement ring.

From the early fifteenth century, in English also picked up another meaning which appeared also in Classical Latin: "a person of great worth".  In mathematics, later in the same century, diamond had come to describe a "geometric figure of four equal straight lines forming two acute and two obtuse angles.  It was used for one of the four suits in playing cards from the 1590s, having been an adjective to describe clusters of diamonds since the 1550s.  In baseball, the use to refer to the square space enclosed within the four bases dates from 1875.

Created when carbon is subject to immense pressure, diamond possess the highest shine of all transparent gemstones and is both the hardest known natural material on earth and the one with the highest thermal conductivity.  Able to be scratched only by another diamond, the cutting of the stones is also done with another diamond.  To determine their quality, diamonds like all precious stones are graded using the 4C system of connoisseurship: carat weight, color, clarity and cut. Diamond is the birthstone for April and the gem of the tenth and sixtieth wedding anniversaries.

Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds (1944).

A diamond cluster was an addition late in World War II to the Knight’s Cross, the highest decoration awarded to Germany’s military and paramilitary forces during the Third Reich.  The Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten) was gazetted in July 1941.  A final and higher grade, the Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Goldenem Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten) was created in December 1944, intended (somewhat optimistically given that all professional soldiers expected that month's  Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine and better known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive or the "Battle of the Bulge") to fail (as it did)) to be awarded after Germany's final victory the to the dozen most illustrious soldiers.  Only six were struck, one of which was actually awarded.