κρυστάλλινος

Forms

κρυστάλλῐνος (krustállinos) m (feminine κρυσταλλῐ́νη, neuter κρυστάλλῐνον); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “ice; rock crystal”) + -ινος (-inos), with the suffix of adjectives of material, as in ξύλινος (xúlinos).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in the Hippocratic Epidemics, of hands that are icy cold, keeping the older sense of κρύσταλλος, “ice”.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

From the Roman period on it means made of rock crystal: Strabo and Plutarch use it, the latter of writing tablets of rock crystal, an epigram of Nicarchus of crystal washbasins, and Dio Cassius of a crystal cup.^[4][7][5][8]

Latin borrowed it as crystallīnus, which with Old French gave English crystalline in the late 14th century.^[1][9] In medieval vernacular Greek it described what looks like crystal and, by extension, anything clear and transparent, as in the epic of Digenis.^[10] Modern Greek κρυστάλλινος (krystállinos) means “made of crystal glass”, a sense shaped by French cristal and English crystal, and figuratively “clear, pure”, of water, a voice or an argument.^[11][3]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – The Hippocratic Epidemics use it of icy hands.^[4][5]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo uses it of things made of crystal.^[5]
• 1st century AD – Nicarchus writes of crystal washbasins.^[4][8]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of writing tablets of rock crystal.^[7][5]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Dio Cassius writes of a crystal cup.^[4][2]
• Late 14th century – English takes crystalline from Old French and Latin.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Icy, ice-cold.^[4][12]
2. Made of crystal, of rock crystal.^[4][7][2]
3. (Byzantine) Like crystal; clear, transparent.^[10][3]

Related words

• κρύσταλλος (krústallos)
• Latin crystallīnus
• English crystalline

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli