sapphire [ME] We can trace the history of sapphire via Old French safir and Latin sapphirus to Greek sappheiros, but this was probably the Greek word for lapis lazuli (see place to word (eponyms)). Before that the trail is obscure. It is thought that the Greeks probably borrowed the word from a Semitic language, such as the Hebrew sappir, but the word does not look as if it has a Semitic origin. There is one theory that the ultimate source may be Sanskrit çanipriya ‘sacred to Saturn’, formed from Sani ‘Saturn’ and priyah ‘precious’, which was the name of a dark-coloured gem, perhaps sapphire or emerald.