jade [ME] Since the Middle Ages a worn-out horse has been described as a jade, although the origin of the word is unknown. When a tired person describes themselves as jaded [L16th], they are looking back to this use, rather than to the sense of jade as ‘a headstrong or disreputable woman’, which developed in the mid 16th century. See also hack, nag. Jade as a name for a hard bluish-green precious stone is a different word. It comes from Spanish piedra de ijada, literally ‘stone of the side or flank’, from the belief that it was a cure for colic. This word dates from the mid 16th century.