The Etymology of Gypsum
Gypsum is a Latinate scientific word with deep Semitic roots.โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ English borrowed gypsum directly from Latin in the late 14th century, in mineralogical writing. Latin had taken the word from Greek gypsos (ฮณฯฯฮฟฯ), meaning chalk or plaster. But Greek gypsos is not native โ it is itself a loan from a Semitic source, almost certainly the Akkadian gaแนฃแนฃu or Aramaic gaแนฃแนฃฤ, both meaning gypsum or burnt-lime plaster. The trade route is plausible: gypsum-plaster technology spread westward from Mesopotamia and the Levant in the second millennium BCE, carrying the word along. Gypsum is one of the softest minerals (Mohs hardness 2 โ you can scratch it with a fingernail), and when heated to about 150ยฐC it loses water to become a fine powder that, mixed with water, hardens into a solid mass โ the basis of plaster of Paris (named for the gypsum-rich quarries of Montmartre and the Paris Basin) and modern drywall. The Italian word gesso, the white plaster ground used in oil painting, is a direct descendant of the same Greek word. Gypsy, on the other hand, is unrelated.