κρύσταλλος

Forms

κρύσταλλος (krústallos) m (genitive κρυστάλλου); second declension^[1] Hesychius has a variant κρόσταλλος, glossed as a kind of glassy stone.^[2]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, because of its suffix: following Kuiper, he holds that all Greek words with this suffix are Pre-Greek and that none of them is Indo-European.^[2][3] He rejects the comparison with Latin crusta, which means a protective rind or crust rather than ice, and with it the derivation from κρύος (krúos, “icy cold, frost”).^[2] Scarborough's database rates the Pre-Greek origin as highly reliable.^[4]

The older literature (Frisk, Chantraine) derived it from the word for frost, though its formation is obscure,^[5] and Babiniotis takes it from the root Proto-Indo-European *kreus- (“ice, crust”) with an unexplained -t- and an expressive suffix.^[6][7] IE-CoR mentions a third possibility, a blend of that root with some substrate material.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is ice: the Iliad compares a cold spring to ice, and in the Odyssey ice forms on the warriors' shields.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus, Thucydides and Plato use it for ice, and Thucydides mentions ice that was not firm enough to bear men.^[9][10] The Hippocratic writers have the adjective κρυστάλλινος (krustállinos) “icy cold”, later also “of rock crystal”.^[2]

From the Hellenistic period it also names rock crystal, as something clear and bright, and in this sense it can be feminine, after λίθος (líthos) “stone”.^[2][10][9] The Septuagint uses it for both ice and crystal, and in Revelation the sea and the river of life are clear as crystal.^[11][12] It was borrowed as Latin crystallus.^[13][14]

Medieval Greek still used it for ice, and the vernacular form κρούσταλλο is medieval.^[15][6] Modern Greek κρύσταλλος is a learned word: the sense of a crystal in physics comes from French cristal, itself from the Greek word through Latin.^[13]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for ice.^[8][9]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for ice; the Hippocratic writers have κρυστάλλινος “icy cold”.^[9][2][16]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it for rock crystal.^[10][16]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus calls certain stones “crystal” stones.^[9][16]
• 1st century BC – 1st century AD – Strabo uses it for rock crystal.^[9][16]
• Modern Greek – κρύσταλλος is a learned word for a crystal.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. Ice.^[9][10]
2. Rock crystal.^[9][10][2]
3. Numbness, torpor.^[9]

Word family

• κρυστάλλινος (krustállinos)
• κρυσταλλόπηκτος (krustallópēktos)
• κρυσταλλοπήξ (krustallopḗx)
• κρυστάλλιον (krustállion)
• κρυσταλλοφανής (krustallophanḗs)
• κρυσταλλώδης (krustallṓdēs)

Related words

• κρύος (krúos)
• Latin crystallus
• English crystal

Usage notes

A proverb recorded by Zenobius, “the boy and the ice”, was said of people who cannot hold on to something but will not let it go.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
5. ^ a b Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
6. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
8. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
12. ^ Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
13. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
15. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
16. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge