Etymology

zircon

Z10I1R1C3O1N1

Today it means: A mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals, usually of a brown or grey colour and consisting of silica and zirconia. Full definition →

German Zirkon ← French zircon ← Arabic زَرْقُون
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Middle Persian · derived fromzlgwn'
  2. Arabic · derived fromزَرْقُون
  3. French · derived fromzircon
  4. German · borrowed fromZirkon
  5. English todayzircon

From German Zirkon, possibly via French zircon, formed in the 1780s from Arabic زَرْقُون (zarqūn), borrowed from Middle Persian zlgwn' (/⁠zargōn⁠/). Doublet of jargoon.

Words from the same roots

Arabicزَرْقُون all →

jargoon

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.