# All Slavic languages: jade



## Gattafee

How do you translate the word "jade" (the gem) in your language? Can it be a feminine first name as it happens in Italian?

Italian = giada

Thank you!


----------



## .Lola.

In Czech it is *nefrit *or *jadeit*.
Neither of them is used as a first name.


----------



## Duya

Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian: žad; Polish: żad; Russian: жад (apparently, rarely used) or нефрит (nephrite). All of those are masculine, thus no female (nor male) names.


----------



## Tolovaj_Mataj

In Slovene: *žad *
the noun is of a masculine gender and it is not used as a first name for people


----------



## Thomas1

Duya said:


> Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian: žad; Polish: żad; Russian: жад (apparently, rarely used) or нефрит (nephrite). All of those are masculine, thus no female (nor male) names.


Hi,

You are hardly likely to hear _żad_ in modern Polish too. IMO, it's a specialistic term. You'd be more likely to hear _nefryt_. _Jadeit_ is also another term that translates _jade_.

As a matter of fact _jade_ is not a female surname, but it can mean something, namely _I am going_. It lacks, however, a Polish diacritical mark as it reads _jadę_, nontheless, such spelling is very often used in Internet chats, forums, correspondence, etc.


Tom


----------



## jazyk

It seems to be related to nephritis. Could it be?


----------



## Duya

jazyk said:


> It seems to be related to nephritis. Could it be?



Yes: 



> The Portuguese, who brought back jade pieces from their settlement in China, called jade _piedre de ilharga_, or gemstone of the loins, because they believed it to be a strong medicine for kidney ailments. The Spanish adapted their own version of this phrase, _piedra de hijada_, when jade objects were brought home from the New World. This term soon became the French _ejade,_ and then finally, the English "jade."


(D'oh, my account is too new to post URLs ; Google "Gemstones beginning with J" for the page)


----------



## jazyk

> The Portuguese, who brought back jade pieces from their settlement in China, called jade _piedre de ilharga_,



I knew knew ilharga was a Portuguese word in spite of being a native speaker myself. Thanks for teaching me that word. I can only point out that the word is _pedra_, stone_, _not _pedre_, as it says there. Thank you so much for the etymology.


----------



## Anatoli

Duya said:


> Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian: žad; Polish: żad; Russian: жад (apparently, rarely used) or нефрит (nephrite). All of those are masculine, thus no female (nor male) names.


In Russian it's called "яшм*а*" or "нефр*и*т", never heard "жад".


----------



## Ptak

Anatoli said:


> never heard "жад".


Me too.


----------



## Duya

Actually, it's the first entry in the Google search for "жад" (ZOMG, the forum still won't let me post URLs), but the page does acknowledge that (and I said "rarely used") 



> В русскоязычной литературе термин «жад» малоупотребителен


ru.wikipedia.org has only the entry for "Нефрит", not for "жад"


----------



## Maroseika

Duya said:


> В русскоязычной литературе термин «жад» малоупотребителен
> ru.wikipedia.org has only the entry for "Нефрит", not for "жад"


*Жад* was used in the 19 cent., but nowadays is obsolete.
Modern name is *жадеит*.
It resembles jade (нефрит), but is not exactly the same mineral.
*Жадеит:* минерал, относящийся к группе щелочных моноклинных пироксенов NaAl [Si2O6], содержит незначительные примеси CaO, FeO и MgO. Обычно образует очень плотные, зернистые, скрытокристаллические массы, вязкие, белого, синевато-белого до яблочно-зелёного цвета. Полупрозрачен, _очень похож на нефрит_
*Нефрит:* минеральная разновидность актинолита и тремолита, представляющая собой плотный микрокристаллический агрегат со спутанно-волокнистой войлокоподобной структурой. Цвета нефрита — от молочно-белого, зеленоватого до зелёного и буро-зелёного.
(БСЭ)


----------



## Duya

To be even more precise, (according to the Wikipedia entry), it wasn't discovered until the 19th century that the term "Jade" commonly applied to the gemstones actually refers to *two* chemically distinct minerals (jadeite and nephrite) but of similar color and physical characteristics. I guess that they even can't be easily distinguished by the laymen, so what you commonly call "nephrite" might actually be jadeite.

Well, we fairly drifted off topic; as a side benefit, I have only 25 posts to go before being able to post damn URLs .


----------



## Thomas1

Anatoli said:


> In Russian it's called "яшм*а*" or "нефр*и*т", never heard "жад".


 


Ptak said:


> Me too.


I feel compelled to mention that I also had never come it across in Polish untill I read this thread and looked it up.


Tom


----------



## Anatoli

What about "яшм*а*"? Nobody confirmed it for Russian. That's the most common, IMHO.


----------



## Ptak

Anatoli said:


> What about "яшм*а*"?


It's *я*шма, "я" is stressed.


----------



## Anatoli

Ptak said:


> It's *я*шма, "я" is stressed.


Yes, indeed, thanks.


----------



## scriptum

Anatoli said:


> What about "яшм*а*"? Nobody confirmed it for Russian. That's the most common, IMHO.


 
Яшма is jasper, not jade.


----------



## mcibor

Thomas1 said:


> I feel compelled to mention that I also had never come it across in Polish untill I read this thread and looked it up.
> Tom



I agree totally with Tomek, but żad is a name of two minerals: 
jade - jadeit
nephrite - nefryt

but I heard only the lattel two, never the first one.
Michał


----------



## Maja

My EN -> SER dictionary says under jade entry:

jade n (miner.)
1. see nephrite
2. see jadeite 

nephrite n (miner.) - *nefrit*
jadeite n (miner.) - *žadeit
*
But *žad* is also used, especially for jewelry.


----------



## xbrinax

hi.it's нефрит in bulgarian...


----------



## Maryne

Gattafee said:


> How do you translate the word "jade" (the gem) in your language? Can it be a feminine first name as it happens in Italian?
> 
> Italian = giada
> 
> Thank you!


Ciao, we in Serbia say zad and it cant be a woman`s name.A presto amico


----------

