Earth & SkyGreek → English
Crystal
/ˈkrɪstəl/noun
A solid whose atoms sit in a regular repeating lattice, or clear high-quality glass.
The Greek roots
κρύσταλλος
krýstallos
ice, rock crystal
κρύος
krýos
icy cold, frost
Literally: “frozen thing”
The story of the word
Greeks thought quartz was water frozen so hard it could never melt again, and used one word for the ice and the stone. Pliny handed the theory to the Middle Ages and it survived into the 17th century. The scientific meaning, a regular atomic lattice, is a 19th-century re-use of the word for a property the Greeks never suspected was there. κρύος also gives cryogenics and the cryostat.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old English → English
- First recorded
- Old English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
cryogeniccryostatcrystallinecryonics
In a sentence
Salt crystals formed along the rim of the dish overnight.
She kept her mother's crystal in a locked cabinet.