Where does the name ‘sapphire’ come from?

The beauty of a sapphire engagement ring is without question. But so too is the term used to describe it.

Sapphire. It’s a rare case where the word is almost as beautiful as the stone itself. But where did this beautiful term originate? That question has been a point of argument for etymologists for many years, but there now seems to be some form of consensus around where the term came from. And it’s a story that stretches back much further than many first imagined.

To find out where we get the term sapphire, let’s begin with today and work our way backwards.

The use of ‘sapphire’ was first documented in English in the mid-13th century. It appears to have been borrowed from the Old French term ‘saphir’; a term that dates back to at least the 12th century.

The Old French word came directly from the Latin ‘sapphirus’, which also gave us the Italian word ‘zaffiro’ and the Spanish ‘zafir’.

Where did the Latin originate from? Well, they borrowed the term from the Ancient Greeks of course! ‘Sappheiros’ to the Greeks simply meant ‘blue stone’, and appeared to have actually been used for a different gem – a lapis lazuli (which almost looks more opal than sapphire).

The Greeks, in turn, appear to have borrowed their term from the Hebrew ‘sappir’. This Semitic source was long thought to be the end of the etymological road for sapphire, until very recently.

Many scholars now believe that the term sapphire didn’t originate in Hebrew at all. They point to the Sanskrit ‘sanipriya’ as the origin, making the word significantly older than previously thought. Sanipriya literally means ‘sacred to Saturn’, and was thought to refer to any dark precious stone, such as emerald and ruby.

So there you have it. Through almost every major civilisation that the world has seen, sapphire has been a constant. And that, perhaps, only serves to make the term more beautiful.