pearl
pronunciation
How to pronounce pearl in British English:
UK [pɜːl]
How to pronounce pearl in American English:
US [pɜːrl]
-
- Noun:
- a smooth lustrous round structure inside the shell of a clam or oyster; much valued as a jewel
- a shade of white the color of bleached bones
- a shape that is small and round
-
- Verb:
- gather pearls, from oysters in the ocean
Word Origin
- pearl
- pearl: [14] Latin perna originally signified ‘leg’, and hence ‘ham’. It came to be applied metaphorically to a variety of sea-mussel whose stalk-like foot resembled a ham in shape. Such mussels could contain pearls, and so a diminutive form *pernula seems to have been coined in Vulgar Latin to designate ‘pearl’. This was later contracted to *perla, which passed into English via Old French perle.
- pearl (n.)
- mid-13c., from Old French perle (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin perla (mid-13c.), of unknown origin. Perhaps from Vulgar Latin *pernula, diminutive of Latin perna, which in Sicily meant "pearl," earlier "sea-mussel," literally "ham, haunch, gammon," so called for the shape of the mollusk shells. Other theories connect it with the root of pear, also somehow based on shape, or Latin pilula "globule," with dissimilation. The usual Latin word for "pearl" was margarita (see margarite). For pearls before swine, see swine. Pearl Harbor translates Hawaiian Wai Momi, literally "pearl waters," so named for the pearl oysters found there; transferred sense of "effective sudden attack" is attested from 1942 (in reference to Dec. 7, 1941).
Example
- 1. Pearl harbour changed america , and therefore the world .
- 2. China 's pearl river delta is swimming with small companies that dominate tiny market niches .
- 3. Even its native pearl industry was on its last legs .
- 4. They have attacked us at pearl harbor .
- 5. Some protesters at pearl square foretold that there would be violence .