crystal
See also: Crystal
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English crystal, cristal, criȝstall, from Old English cristalla (“crystal”), a borrowing from Latin crystallum (“crystal, ice”) (later reinforced from Anglo-Norman cristall and Middle French cristal, from Latin crystallum), from Ancient Greek κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “clear ice”), from κρύος (krúos, “frost”), from Proto-Indo-European *krews- (“hard, hard outer surface, crust”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
crystal (countable and uncountable, plural crystals)
- (countable) A solid composed of an array of atoms or molecules possessing long-range order and arranged in a pattern which is periodic in three dimensions.
- (countable) A piece of glimmering, shining mineral resembling ice or glass.
- (uncountable) A fine type of glassware, or the material used to make it.
- (uncountable, slang) Crystal meth: methamphetamine hydrochloride.
- 1968, Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:
- He tells me he's been shooting crystal, which I already pretty much know because he does not bother to keep his sleeves rolled down over the needle tracks.
- (obsolete, usually in the plural) a person's eye.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 75, column 2:
- Come, let's away. My loue, giue me thy Lippes: Looke to my Chattels, and my Moueables: [...] Goe, cleare they Chryſtalls. Yokefellowes in Armes, let vs to France
- Come, let's away. My love, kiss me. Look after my goods and property [...] Go, dry your eyes. Comrades in arms, let us to France
- The glass over the dial of a watch case.
Derived termsEdit
- anticrystal
- blood crystal
- Charcot-Leyden crystal
- cheese crystal
- clear as crystal
- compound crystal
- crystal ball
- Crystal City
- crystal class
- crystal clear
- crystal dick
- Crystal Falls
- crystal field theory
- crystal habit
- crystal healing
- crystal lattice
- crystal magick
- crystal methamphetamine
- crystal momentum
- crystal oven
- Crystal Palace
- crystal radio
- crystal radio receiver
- crystal set
- crystal sphere
- crystal stone
- crystal system
- crystal twinning
- crystal violet
- crystal-clear
- crystal-gazer
- crystal-gazing
- crystallant
- crystalliferous
- crystalline
- crystallite
- crystallization, crystallisation
- crystallize, crystallise
- crystallographer
- crystalloid
- ferroelectric crystal
- ferroelectric liquid-crystal display
- hopper crystal
- Iceland crystal
- ionic crystal
- lead crystal
- liquid crystal
- liquid crystal display
- mountain crystal
- negative crystal
- paracrystal
- phononic crystal
- photonic crystal
- positive crystal
- quartz-crystal clock
- quasi-crystal
- quasicrystal
- rock crystal
- seed crystal
- single crystal
- sonocrystal
- space-time crystal
- thorn-apple crystal
- time crystal
- twin crystal
DescendantsEdit
TranslationsEdit
array of atoms
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mineral
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glassware
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(used attributively)
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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AdjectiveEdit
crystal (not comparable)
- Very clear.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 23, column 1–2:
- Thou art a Traitor, and a Miſcreant;
Too good to be ſo, and too bad to liue,
Since the more faire and chriſtall is the skie,
The vglier ſeeme the cloudes that in it flye:
- "Do I make myself clear?" / "Crystal."
ReferencesEdit
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “crystal”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.