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Despite the close association of jade with China and Japan, its name has no Asian connections. A derivative of Latin ilia "flanks," the part of the body where the kidneys are situated, passed into Spanish as ijada. It was thought that jade could cure pain in the renal area, so the Spanish called it piedra de ijada, literally "stone of the flanks," eventually reduced to ijada. In French it became ejade. Subsequently l'ejade "the jade" became le jade, from which English jade is derived. (The alternative name for one of the types of jade, nephrite, is based on the same idea: it comes from Greek nephros "kidney.").
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