different between jewel vs jeel

English

Etymology

From Middle English juel, jewel, juwel, jeuel, jowel, from Anglo-Norman juel, from Old French jouel, joel, joiel, of uncertain origin. Perhaps based ultimately on Latin gaudium (“joy”), or on Latin iocus (“joke; jest”). Compare Medieval Latin jocale.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d?u??l/, /?d?u?l/, /?d???l/
• (Canada, General American) IPA^(key): /d?ul/, /?d?u.?l/
• Rhymes: -u?l, -??l
• Homophone: joule

Noun

jewel (plural jewels)

1. A precious or semi-precious stone; gem, gemstone.
2. A valuable object used for personal ornamentation, especially one made of precious metals and stones; a piece of jewellery.
   • ante 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Cymbeline, act I, scene vi, lines 188–9:

     Iachimo: 'Tis plate of rare device, and jewels / Of rich and exquisite form, their values great.

3. (figuratively) Anything precious or valuable.
4. (horology) A bearing for a pivot in a watch, formed of a crystal or precious stone.
5. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Hypochrysops.
6. (slang) The clitoris.
   • 2008, Another Time, Another Place: Five Novellas

     The area between her eyebrows wrinkled with the increasing circular motions her two fingers made on her jewel.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:gemstone

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

jewel (third-person singular simple present jewels, present participle jewelling or jeweling, simple past and past participle jewelled or jeweled)

1. To bejewel; to decorate or bedeck with jewels or gems.

Translations

Middle English

Noun

jewel

1. Alternative form of juel

English

Etymology 1

Noun

jeel (plural jeels)

1. Alternative form of jheel
   • 1820, Walter Hamilton, A Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of Hindostan and the Adjacent Countries, Volume 1, page 246,

     The pieces of stagnant water may be divided into jeels which contain water throughout the year, and chaongre which dry up in the cold season.

   • 1827, East India Company, Journey across the Arracan Mountains, The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, Volume 23, page 16,

     On the banks of this jeel the party encamped, about two miles from the village.

   • 1827, The Burmese War: Operations on the Sihet Frontier, 1824, The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and Its Dependencies, Volume 24, page 551,

     The reports of some hircarrahs having induced a belief that a short passage might be discovered across the jeels from the Gogra towards Tilyn, Lieut. Fisher, of the Quarter-Master General's department, was despatched to reconnoitre the outlets from that river, accompanied by Lieut. Craigie and five sipahees, in two dingees.

Etymology 2

Manx jeeyl, jeeill ("damage"), cognate to Irish díobháil.

Noun

jeel

1. (Isle of Man) Damage; harm.
   • 1889, Thomas Edward Brown, The Manx Witch: And Other Poems, page 79:

     And the gel, you know, as freckened as freckened,

     Because of coorse she navar reckoned

     But Misthriss Banks could do the jeel ¹

     She was braggin she could, and she'd take and kneel

     On her bended knees, and she'd cuss — the baste !

     […]

     ¹ Damage.

   • 1908, Cushag (Josephine Kermode), Eunys, Or the Dalby Maid, page 16:

     An' first an' last upon the flure, an' spinnin' at the wheel,

     But that strange silence on her still of what had done the jeel.

   • 1924, Sophia Morrison, Edmund Goodwin, A vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx dialect,

     page 73, entry "Govvag":

     The jeel (damage) the govags is doin to the nets is urrov all marcy.

     page 188, entry "Traa-dy-liooar":

     An' the wan (one) that's doin all the jeel (damage) is wickad Traa-dy-liooar (Time-enough). (Cushag.)

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914) , “jeel”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, volume III (Hoop–O), revised edition, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., OCLC 1078064371.