jewel [ME] Originally jewel meant a decorative piece worn for personal adornment, but later it came to specify an ornament containing a precious stone, or the stone itself. The origin suggests that adornment was linked with entertainment, as the word comes from French jeu ‘game, play’, and perhaps ultimately from Latin jocus ‘jest’. See also joke. The jewel in the crown is the most valuable or successful part of something. It dates from the early 17th century for something important or a valuable aspect of something but was popularized as the title of a 1966 novel by Paul Scott, and of a 1980s BBC TV series that was based on this. The phrase was used in the early 1900s as a name for the colonies of the British Empire.