crystal

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkrɪs.təl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cristal, inherited from Old English cristal, borrowed from Old French cristal,^[2][3][4] from Latin crystallum (“ice, crystal”),^[2][3] from Ancient Greek κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “ice, rock crystal”),^[2][3][5] from κρύος (krúos, “frost”),^[2][5] from Proto-Indo-European *kreus- (“to begin to freeze, form a crust”).^[2] It is related to crust.^[3][2] Between the 15th and 17th centuries the spelling was gradually changed to the Latin form.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Clear ice, and a clear transparent mineral like ice: about 1000, in Ælfric.^[3][6] The ancients regarded rock crystal as a kind of petrified ice.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “ice”, a literal translation from the Vulgate, was obsolete by the mid-16th century.^[6][4] Clear as crystal is from before 1300.^[6] A piece of rock crystal used in magic or divination is from 1393,^[6] and the adjective from about 1380.^[3] Crystal glass is from 1594, the 1590s in Etymonline.^[6][2] The chemical sense, a solid with a regular structure bounded by plane faces, is from the 1620s.^[2][7] The crystal ball is from 1794.^[2] Crystallize is from 1598 and crystalline from before 1398.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – ice; rock crystal.^[6][3]
• 1393 – a crystal used in magic.^[6]
• 1594 – crystal glass.^[6]
• 1620s – in chemistry.^[2]
• 1794 – crystal ball.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A solid substance whose atoms or molecules are arranged in a regular repeating pattern, with flat faces.
2. Clear transparent quartz, or a piece of it.
3. Very clear, high-quality glass, or objects made of it.
4. The glass cover of a watch face.

Adjective

1. Very clear or transparent: crystal waters.

Word family

• crystallike

Related words

• crystalline
• crystallize
• crust

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press