The Crazy Origins Behind Words You Use Every Day

Jade

crazy word origins
IMAGE BY: Divine Guidance

The green stone gets its name from its supposed medicinal powers. Latin ilia indicates the “lower torso,” specifically the area around the kidneys, which later in Spanish became ijada. They believed this special type of stone could alleviate pain when placed on the skin near the kidney region, so they called it piedra (“stone”) de ijada. In time, the first part of the phrase was dropped, and ijada became “jade.”

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