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21 juin 2017
Coming from the word jewellery, referring to the collection of precious objects used for adornment, the word jewel is generally considered to have been borrowed from the Breton bizou, a finger ring, surprisingly! Derived from biz (finger), a Celtic word corresponding to the Welsh byzon, the Cornish bizou. P Guiraud, a French linguist, disputing this Celtic etymology, suggests it is derived from biseler, to chamfer, from a variant bisoler, justified, according to him, by the Provençal bisolo, a pointed chamfer. He explains the form jewel as a dialectal form, possibly Walloon as there is bijet, briger for biser, briser. However, the first attestation, in Gay's glossary, is Breton, seriously compromising the second hypothesis.
In the sense of small crafted object, precious , used for adornment, there are special and figurative extensions: the word refers to a thing, a structure notable for its crafted beauty (1690) or designates a person who is pleasant and gracious and is used as a term of endearment my jewel.
The jewel is in any case always associated with a connotation of pleasure to behold, a definition that just about everyone agrees with.
Béatrice Brothier, passionate gemmologist
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