A hard, transparent to translucent mineral that occurs in various colors and includes precious stones like emerald and aquamarine. Pure beryl is colorless, but impurities create different colored varieties.
From Old French beryl, from Latin beryllus, borrowed from Greek βήρυλλος (bēryllos). The Greek word likely came from a Dravidian language of South India, possibly related to the city of Belur in Karnataka, India, which was famous for beryl mining. The word entered English in the 13th century through French.
The word 'beryl' might actually come from an ancient Indian city famous for mining these gems - Belur in South India was exporting beryl to Greece and Rome over 2,000 years ago! What's amazing is that beryl includes both the most expensive gem (emerald) and some of the largest crystals ever found - some beryl crystals in Brazil are over 60 feet long.
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