English▸ noun [mass noun] a hard, typically green stone used for ornaments and implements and consisting of the minerals jadeite or nephrite:
[as modifier] a jade figurine.
▪ [count noun] an ornament made of jade.
– ORIGIN late 16th century: from French le jade (earlier l'ejade), from Spanish piedra de ijada ‘stone of the flank’ (i.e. stone for colic, which it was believed to cure).