nephrite

See also: néphrite

English

Etymology

From Latin lapis nephriticus, via Ancient Greek λίθος (líthos) νεφριτικός (nephritikós), meaning kidney stone, because jade was believed to have cured kidney stones.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɛfˌɹaɪt/

Noun

nephrite (countable and uncountable, plural nephrites)

1. (mineralogy) A semi-precious stone, one of the two types of stone commonly referred to as jade (the other being jadeite).
   • 1968, S. Howard Hansford, “The Material and Its Sources”, in Chinese Carved Jades‎, Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society Ltd., →LCCN, →OCLC, page 27:

     Occurrences of nephrite are more numerous. China’s most important source throughout its history has been the region of Khotan (Ho-t‘ien) and Yarkand in Central Asia. In more recent times the Chinese have also imported nephrite from the neighbourhood of Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia.

Translations

semi-precious stone

Bulgarian: нефрит (bg) m (nefrit) Catalan: nefrita f Chinese: Mandarin: 軟玉 / 软玉 (zh) (ruǎnyù), (formerly) 玉 (zh) (yù) Czech: nefrit (cs) m Finnish: nefriitti (fi) French: néphrite (fr) f German: Nephrit (de) m Greek: νεφρίτης (el) (nefrítis) Italian: nefrite (it) f Japanese: 軟玉 (ja) (nangyoku) Kazakh: нефрит (nefrit) Latin: lapis nephrīticus m, nephrītēs Latvian: nefrīts m Macedonian: не́фрит m (néfrit) Maori: pounamu (mi) Polish: nefryt (pl) m Spanish: nefrita f

Anagrams

• prehnite, repineth, ripeneth, trephine