crusta
Pronunciation
Forms
crusta f (genitive crustae); first declension[1]
Etymology
It is inherited from Proto-Italic *krusto- (“hardened”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *krus-to- (“crushed, pounded”).[2] De Vaan connects it with the root *krus- (“to thrust, pound”), since a crust can be thought of as the part that has been hardened by pounding.[2] Cognate with Lithuanian krùšti (“to crush”) and Ancient Greek κρούω (kroúō, “to strike, smite”); Oscan krustatar, an Oscan word of unknown meaning, may also belong here.[2]
The older explanation links it with Greek κρύος (krúos, “frost”) and κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “ice”),[3][4] and Wiktionary derives it from *krews- (“to form a crust, begin to freeze”).[1] De Vaan reports that Beekes rejects the link with the Greek words for frost and ice, because nothing shows that the Latin word first referred to ice or cold, and he calls the place of the Germanic words, such as Old English hrūse (“earth, soil”), uncertain.[2]
Earliest recorded meaning
De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Lucretius,[2][5] who writes of soft mud hardening into crusts (mollis luti concrescere crustas).[3]
Semantic evolution
Its basic sense is a hard coating or surface layer, a crust.[3][6] Virgil uses it for sudden crusts of ice on a running river,[7] and Pliny the Elder for the hard covering of shellfish and sea urchins and the husk of acorns;[3][7] in Celsus it is the scab on an ulcer.[3][6]
From a surface layer it came to mean a thin leaf or flake of stone, and in Vitruvius a thin slab of marble laid over a wall as panelling.[3] In Cicero's speeches against Verres the crustae are embossed outer casings of precious metal on drinking vessels, which were stripped off together with the emblemata.[3][7]
It passed into Italian crosta,[7] and into English, partly through French, as crust.[8]
Timeline
- 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of mud hardening into crusts.[3][2][5]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of embossed casings on silver vessels.[3][5]
- 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of crusts of ice.[7][5]
- c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of flakes of stone and marble panels.[3][5]
- 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a scab.[3][5]
- 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of shells and husks.[3][5]
- early 14th century – English takes it as crust, the hard outer part of bread.[8]
Meanings
Noun
- A hard coating or surface layer, a crust.[3][6][1]
- The hard outer covering of shellfish, insects and some fruits, a shell or husk.[3][6]
- (medicine) A scab on an ulcer.[3][6]
- A thin leaf or flake of a mineral.[3]
- A thin slab of marble used as wall panelling; plaster or stucco work.[3][1]
- An embossed outer casing of precious metal on a drinking vessel.[3]
Word family
- crustārius
- crustō
- crustōsus
- crustula
- crustum
- crustulum
Related words
- English crust
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com