From Greek 'smaragdos' (green gem) — reshaped at every stage of transmission through Latin, Vulgar Latin, and Old French.
A bright green precious stone consisting of the mineral beryl colored by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium.
From Middle English 'emeraude,' from Old French 'esmeraude,' from Vulgar Latin *esmaralda, *esmaraldus, from Latin 'smaragdus,' from Greek 'smáragdos' (σμάραγδος, green gem), probably borrowed from a Semitic source — compare Hebrew 'bareket' or Akkadian 'barraqtu' (shining stone). Some scholars trace it further to Sanskrit 'marakata' (मरकत, emerald), which may itself be of Dravidian origin. The word has been reshaped at every stage of its journey, losing and gaining sounds as it passed through language after language.
The Spanish name 'Esmeralda' (used as a given name, as in Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre-Dame) is the same word as 'emerald.' German preserves a form closer to the Greek: 'Smaragd.' The emerald mines of Cleopatra in Egypt were a major source of the gemstone for the ancient Mediterranean world and were rediscovered in 1818 after being lost for centuries.