chrysoprase

History and Etymology for chrysoprase

Middle English crisopace, crisopassus, crissoprassus, borrowed from Latin chrȳsoprasos, chrȳsoprasum, borrowed from Greek chrȳsóprasson, from chrȳso- chryso- + -prasos, derivative of práson "leek," probably of pre-Greek substratal origin

Note: Both Greek práson and Latin porrum "leek" can be taken back to a zero-grade *pr̥so-, but given the limited distribution of the etymon a loan from a Mediterranean language is more likely than Indo-European descent.