quartz

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Quarz,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} earlier also Querz, first recorded in the first half of the 14th century as a Middle High German quarz of Bohemia,^[2][7] where it was a term of the mining trade.^[8] Barnhart and Etymonline give the Middle High German forms as twarc, quarc and zwarc.^[4][3] The origin of the German word is uncertain.^[2][8][7][9] The OED, Pfeifer and Weekley suggest a pet form, with the suffix -z as in Heinz for Heinrich, of Middle High German querch, a variant of twerc (“dwarf”) (see dwarf):^[2][7][10] miners blamed mountain spirits for a mineral that yielded no ore, as with cobalt and nickel,^[7] and the OED compares Norwegian dvergstein (“quartz, literally dwarf-stone”).^[2] Others derive it from a West Slavic word for "hard":^[4][3][5][6] Polish kwardy in Polish dialect, a variant of twardy (“hard”),^{[6][11][2][12]} compared with Czech tvrdý (“hard”),^[6][12][13] which the OED gives as an alternative etymology.^[2] The Slavic words are related to Lithuanian tvirtas (“hard, firm”).^[2][12] Kluge instead connects it with chert in English dialect and Swedish kart (“small stone”) in Swedish dialect, and reconstructs Proto-Germanic *kwarta-.^[8] From German come also Italian quarzo (1550), French quartz (1749), Swedish kvarts (1685) and Dutch kwarts.^[2][7][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The rock-forming mineral made of silica: Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1631,^[13] the OED to 1676, in Elisha Coles's English Dictionary,^[2] and Barnhart and Etymonline to 1756.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its mineralogical meaning in English.^[2][6] In American slang of about 1900 quartz could also mean money.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1631 – the mineral.^[13]
• 1676 – in Coles's English Dictionary.^[2]
• 1756 – date given by Barnhart and Etymonline.^[4][3]
• 1899 – (US slang) money.^[14]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A common, hard mineral made of silica, usually colourless or white but often tinted by impurities, as in amethyst and citrine; it is used in glass, abrasives and electronics.
2. (US slang, dated) Money.

Word family

• quartzose
• quartziferous
• quartzite
• fused quartz
• rose quartz
• quartz crystal
• quartz glass
• quartz heater

Related words

• dwarf
• chert

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
8. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 737
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com