crescent

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English cressaunt, also cressant,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman cressaunt, a variant of Old French creissant (modern French croissant),^{[6][3][5][7][8]} the noun use of the present participle of creistre (“to grow”) (modern croître),^[9][8][10] from Latin crēscēns, the present participle of crēscō (“to come forth, grow, increase”).^{[3][10][6][5]} The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the early 12th century, for growth, the waxing of the moon and a crescent shape.^[11][9] In the 17th century the English spelling was remodelled on the Latin participle,^{[7][12][5][13][14]} which had already given the adjective meaning "growing" in the 16th century.^[7][9][4] The Latin verb is traced to Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“to grow”),^[3][6][8] and is the source also of create, increase, crescendo, concrete, crew, accretion and recruit, and through modern French of croissant.^[15][8][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A crescent-shaped ornament: 1399, apparently the earliest sense in English.^[9][10][3]

Semantic evolution

The Romans called the waxing moon Latin lūna crēscēns (“growing moon”); the word was later taken to describe its shape rather than its stage, and so came to mean anything of that shape.^[3][15][16] In English it is recorded for the moon's shape in its first or last quarter from the mid-15th century,^[3][2] for the waxing moon itself from 1530,^[9] and as a charge in heraldry from 1486.^[9][2] The crescent was adopted as an emblem by the Ottoman sultans, probably for its suggestion of increase, and is so recorded from 1589;^[9][3] by the 1580s or 1615 it stood for Turkish or Islamic power.^[3][9] Weekley calls its use as a symbol of Islam in general often mistaken,^[13] and Etymonline warns that modern writers wrongly connect it with the Saracens of the Crusades or the Moors of Spain.^[3] The adjective, at first "growing, increasing", is from 1568,^[9][3] and "shaped like the crescent moon" from 1603;^[9][3] Shakespeare wrote "My powers are crescent" in Antony and Cleopatra,^[5] and Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "increasing; growing".^[17] A row of houses built in a curve has been called a crescent since 1766, in Anstey's New Bath Guide;^[9][7] later uses include a disease of a horse's foot (1725), a Turkish musical instrument (1852) and, in the United States, a crescent-shaped roll of bread (1886).^[9][3]

Timeline

• 1399 – a crescent-shaped ornament.^[9][10]
• 1486 – heraldry, a crescent as a charge.^[9]
• 1530 – the waxing moon.^[9]
• 1568 – adjective, growing, increasing.^[9]
• 1578 – the shape of the moon in its first or last quarter.^[9]
• 1589 – the emblem of the Ottoman sultans.^[9]
• 1603 – adjective, crescent-shaped.^[9]
• 1766 – a curved row of houses.^[9]
• 1886 – a crescent roll (US).^[9][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The curved shape of the moon between new moon and the first quarter, or between the last quarter and new moon.^[4][18][9]
2. A shape with one convex and one concave edge, or anything shaped like this: a crescent of sand along the bay.^[4][18][9]
3. A figure of the crescent moon used as an ornament, emblem or badge, and in heraldry as a charge.^[4][18][9]
4. (often capitalized) The emblem of Islam or of the Ottoman Empire, and by extension Islamic or Turkish power.^[18][9]
5. (chiefly British) A curved street, or a row of houses built along one.^[18][9]
6. (US) A crescent-shaped roll of bread; a crescent roll.^[9]

Adjective

1. Shaped like a crescent: a crescent beach.^[4][9]
2. (archaic or poetic) Growing or increasing.^[18][4][9]

Word family

• crescentic
• Fertile Crescent
• Red Crescent
• Turkish crescent

Related words

• croissant
• crescendo
• create
• increase
• decrease
• concrete
• crew
• accretion
• recruit
• accrue
• excrescence

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins