Origin Of The Name Diamond

The Rabbinical times were a fertile ground for legions of legends to flourish. And one such lore is the saga of Shamir. It is believed to be the seventh of the ten marvels created at the end of the sixth day of creation. Its size is described to be not larger than a barley-coin. Yet, it had the power to split up the hardest substances, if brought in contact with them, or even in their neighborhood. 

Some versions credit it with such immense magical powers that it could help in construction of great buildings. King Solomon is believed to have used it for constructing magnificent places of worship and other majestic buildings. The etymology of the word indicates a pointed object, similar to the culet of a diamond.

Quite a few have considered the Hebrew shamir to be analogous to the Greek ?δ?μα?. Both were metaphorically used to signify hardness of heart. The Hebrew prophet Zechariah says of the disobedient Jews that “they made their hearts as an adamant stone” (shamir). The Greek poet Theocritus calls Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, “the adamas in Hades.” This clearly shows that invincible hardness was the common characteristic of the material designated by these words.

However, it appears probable that while shamir signifies a form of corundum, the word adamas, as used by the early Greek writers, denoted a hard, metallic substance. Possibly, when iron first became known to the Greeks, the adjective ?δαμ?ντινο?, “indomitable, " was applied to it, and later the noun adamas was formed from this adjective and was used by the poets to signify an imaginary substance even harder than iron. As such, when the diamond became known in Greek lands, the name adamas was applied to it because of its extreme hardness. Adamos evolved into the name "Diamond" in English language.