Etymologically
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crystal

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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
  • 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