gem: [14] Gem comes via Old French gemme from Latin gemma. This originally meant ‘bud’, and the sense ‘precious stone’ was only a secondary metaphorical extension. The underlying semantic stratum still appears in such botanical terms as gemmation ‘formation of buds’ [18].
gem (n.)
"a precious stone" (especially when cut or polished), c. 1300, probably from Old French gemme (12c.), from Latin gemma "precious stone, jewel," originally "bud," from Proto-Italic *gebma- "bud, sprout," from PIE *geb-m- "sprout, bud" (cognates: Lithuanian ?embeti "to germinate, sprout," Old Church Slavonic prozebnoti "to germinate"). The two competing traditional etymologies trace it either to the root *gembh- "tooth, nail; to bite" [Watkins] or *gem- "'to press." De Vaan finds the second "semantically unconvincing" and leans toward the first despite the difficult sense connection. Of persons, "a rare or excellent example (of something)" from late 13c. Alternative forms iemme, gimme persisted into 14c. and might represent a survival of Old English gimm "precious stone, gem, jewel," also "eye," which was borrowed directly from Latin gemma.
gem (v.)
c. 1600, "to adorn with gems;" earlier (mid-12c.) "to bud," from gem (n.). Related: Gemmed; gemming.
例文
1. Miss Famous,as she was called,was a gem .
「有名なお嬢さん」はその名の通り、特別なものです。
2."Oh，thank you！'she enthused gratefully."You 're a real gem ，a diamond of the first water."
「ありがとう！」彼女は「あなたは本当に尊敬される人で、一流のいい人ですね」と感謝している。
3.The Provincial government granted us the right to gem the whole river.