cristal

Forms

cristal n (plural cristale or cristaluri)^[1]

Etymology

Romanian took the word more than once, the Academy dictionaries agree.^[2][3] In DELR's account it is borrowed from Modern Greek κρύσταλλος (krýstallos); for Transylvania DELR adds New Latin crystallus and German Kristall, and for the scientific senses French cristal.^[3] DER gives the Greek word for the 17th century and the French one for the modern word,^[4] MDA2 names Greek and Latin,^[5] and DEX and Wiktionary name French and Latin.^[6][1] Tiktin calls the etymology multiple.^[7]

The old variants came by other routes: DELR takes criștal and creștal from Hungarian kristál, in Moldavia perhaps also from Polish kryształ, and criștai from kristály, itself probably from Italian cristallo.^[3] The form criștar arose from criștal by assimilation, and cleștar and cliștar by metathesis or dissimilation.^[3] Scriban thought the 1688 Bible's form came from Polish or Hungarian.^[8]

The Greek word first meant “ice”.^[2] DELR and the DHLF derive it from Ancient Greek κρύος (krúos, “icy cold”),^[3][9] while Beekes takes it for a Pre-Greek word.^[10] The word reached Aromanian cristal, which Pascu derives from κρυστάλλι (krystálli).^[4][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin, after Tamás, dates the first record to the Alexander Romance of 1620.^[7] DELR's first record is in Nicolae Milescu's writings (1651–1680),^[3] and MDA2's in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1682–1686), where a creature has „mânule de cristal” “hands of crystal”.^[5][2] The early sense is the clear stone, rock crystal, often a term of comparison for clearness.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word is the clear mineral and a byword for transparency: „limpede ca cristalul” “clear as crystal” (Creangă).^[2] From the stone it passed to fine, clear and resonant glass and to the vessels and objects made of it.^[2][6] In the 19th century science gave it the sense of a solid with regular plane faces, and by analogy the shapes water takes as it freezes.^[2] The old phrase cristalul ochiului named the lens of the eye.^[5][3]

Cristal lichid “liquid crystal” reached the press in the 1980s with display screens.^[12] In drug slang the word means amphetamine.^[13] Scriban objected to poets' use of the old cleștar as a folk word, saying ordinary people did not know it.^[8]

Timeline

• 1620 – in the Alexander Romance, the first record Tiktin gives after Tamás.^[7]
• 1651–1680 – in Nicolae Milescu's writings, DELR's first record.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – „mânule de cristal” in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[5][7]
• 1688 – criștal in the Bucharest Bible (Numbers 11:7).^[7]
• 1780–1790 – the derivative cristalin, in umoare cristalino “crystalline humour”.^[3]
• 1813 – the verb cristaliza, as cristălisi, in Petru Maior.^[3]
• 1837 – cristalografie “crystallography”.^[3]
• 1840 – cristalerie “crystal works; crystal ware”.^[3]
• 1984 – cristal lichid “liquid crystal” in the press.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Crystal glass: specially made, perfectly clear and colourless glass that refracts light strongly, used for optical lenses and luxury ware.^[6][5]
2. An object, especially a vessel, made of crystal.^[6]
3. A crystal: a solid mineral substance with a regular internal structure, in the shape of a polyhedron;^[6][5] cristal de stâncă “rock crystal”, a clear colourless quartz.^[6][5]
4. In cristal lichid “liquid crystal”: a fluid whose molecules are ordered, used in displays.^[6][12]
5. (slang) Amphetamine.^[13]

Word family

• cristalin
• cristaliza
• cristalizație
• cristalografic
• cristalografie
• cristaloid
• cristalerie

Related words

• cleștar
• Ancient Greek κρύσταλλος (krústallos)

Usage notes

DEX gives the plural cristaluri for the glass and cristale for the mineral body.^[6] The old and regional variants cleștar, criștal, creștal and cristar are recorded in DELR and MDA2.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. cristal
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. cristal
4. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. cristal
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 551
6. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 251
7. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cristal
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 29
12. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu