jewel: [13] Originally, jewel meant ‘costly adornment made from precious stones or metals’ – a sense now largely restricted to the collective form jewellery [14]. The main modern sense ‘gem’ emerged towards the end of the 16th century. The word comes from Anglo-Norman juel, but exactly where that came from is not known for certain. It is generally assumed to be a derivative of jeu ‘game’, which came from Latin jocus (source of English jocular, joke, etc). => jeopardy, jocular, joke
jewel (n.)
late 13c., "article of value used for adornment," from Anglo-French juel, Old French jouel "ornament, jewel" (12c.), perhaps from Medieval Latin jocale, from Latin jocus "pastime, sport," in Vulgar Latin "that which causes joy" (see joke (n.)). Another theory traces it to Latin gaudium, also with a notion of "rejoice" (see joy).
Sense of "precious stone" developed early 14c. Meaning "beloved person, admired woman" is late 14c. Colloquial family jewels "testicles" is from 1920s, but jewel as "testicle" dates to late 15c.
雙語例句
1. Alan, you're a jewel.
艾倫，你真是出類拔萃呀。
來自柯林斯例句
2. He spent important money on a small jewel for his wife.
他花大筆錢購買小小的寶石給太太.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
3. Doesn't he look like that man who's wanted for the jewel robbery?
他不是很像那個因搶劫珠寶而受到通緝的罪犯 嗎 ?
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
4. The lowest estimate would put the worth of the jewel at ＄200.