Crystal sb. and a.

Forms: α. [1 cristalla], 3–7 cristal(l, (4 crestal, -el, kristall, cristale, -talle); β. 5 crystalle, 5–7 crystall, 7– crystal; γ. 6–7 christal(l, 7 chrystall, 7–9 chrystal. [a. OF. cristal (11th c. in Littré) = Pr. and Sp. cristal, It. cristallo, ad. L. crystallum, ad. Gr. κρύσταλλος clear ice, (rock)crystal, deriv. of κρυσταίν-ειν to freeze, congeal with frost, κρύος frost. Between the 15th and the 17th c. the Eng. spelling was gradually changed after L. to crystal (against the practice of the Romanic langs.), and in the 16th c. an erroneous spelling with chr- (app. after chrysolite, etc.) became frequent.]

  A.  sb.

  † 1.  Ice, clear ice. Obs. (chiefly a literalism of translation from the Vulgate).

c. 1000.  Ags. Ps. cxlvii. 6. He his cristallum cynnum sendeð.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter cxlvii. 6. He sendis his kristall as morcels.

1382.  Wyclif, Ecclus. xliii. 22. The cristal freesede fro the watyr.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xvii. 79. Þe water congelez in to cristall.

1535.  Coverdale, Ecclus. xliii. 20. Whan the colde northwynde bloweth, harde Christall commeth of the water.

  2.  A mineral, clear and transparent like ice; esp. a form of pure quartz having these qualities. Now more particularly distinguished from other senses as Rock-crystal, formerly also crystal of the mountains. Iceland crystal: old name of Iceland spar.

(By the ancients and in the Middle Ages (rock-crystal was supposed to be congealed water or ice ‘petrified’ by some long-continued natural process. There was thus no transfer of sense in applying to it the same name as to clear ice, of which it was viewed as merely another state.)

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Num. xi. 7. Swilce coryandran sæd, hwites bleos swa cristalla [Vulg. coloris bdellii].

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., 228/318. Weued and chaliz and Cruettes þoruȝ-out cler cristal.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xxx. (1495), 562. Crystall is a bryght stone and clere wyth watry colour. Men trowe that snowe or yse is made hard in space of many yeres; therfore the Grekys yaue this name therto.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 103. Crystalle, stone, cristallus.

1567.  Maplet, Gr. Forest, 5 b. The Cristall is one of those stones that shyneth in euerie part, and is in colour watrie. Isidore saith, that it is nothing else then a congeled Ise by continuance frosen whole yeares.

1611.  Bible, Rev. iv. 6. A sea of glasse like vnto Chrystall.

1647.  Cowley, Mistress, Coldness, iii. Though Heat dissolve the Ice again, The Chrystal solid does remain.

1750.  trans. Leonardus’ Mirr. Stones, 84. Crystal, is a Stone like Ice, both in Colour and Transparency, with a pretty good Hardness.

1861.  C. W. King, Ant. Gems (1866), 93. Crystal is found in very large masses; the largest known to the Romans weighed 50 pounds.

1874.  Boutell, Arms & Arm., vi. 85. Of iron, or of bone, stone, crystal, or some other hard substance.

  b.  The standard type of clearness or transparency, in the phrase ‘as clear as crystal’ (CLEAR a. 3).

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 376 (Fairf.). Water clere als cristale.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xxxii. 24. My coloure as cristall is clere.

1647.  Cowley, Mistress, My Heart Discov. Clear as fair Crystal to the View.

  3.  Poetically applied to pure limpid water, or other clear transparent substance.

1594.  Barnfield, Affect. Sheph., I. xxii. Within the Christall of a Pearle-bright brooke.

1643.  Denham, Cooper’s H. (1653), 17.

1767.  Sir W. Jones, Seven Fountains, Poems (1777), 43.

1885.  Mrs. H. Ward, trans. Amiel’s Jrnl., 255. The glacier throws off the stones and fragments fallen into its crevasses that it may remain pure crystal.

  4.  (with a and pl.) A piece of rock-crystal or similar mineral; esp. one used in magic art.

1393.  Gower, Conf., III. 112. A cristall is that one, Which that corone is set upon.

c. 1475.  Rauf Coilȝear, 474. Blandit with Beriallis and Cristallis cleir.

1597.  Jas. I., Demonol. (in Brand, Pop. Ant., III. 108). The Seer looks into a Chrystal or Berryl, wherein he will see the answer, represented either by Types or Figures.

1669.  Phil. Trans., IV. 983. At the foot of these mountains are with great labour digg’d out Chrystals.

1769.  Sir W. Jones, Palace Fortune, Poems (1777), 16. She looks; and in th’ enchanted crystal sees A bower o’er-canopied with tufted trees.

1816.  Scott, Antiq., xxiii. You have used neither … crystal, pentacle, magic-mirror, nor geomantic figure.

1882.  Stevenson, New Arab. Nts. (1884), 110. The gardener … hastily drew together the … jewels…. The touch of these costly crystals sent a shiver … through the man’s frame.

  b.  fig. Applied to the eyes.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 963. Her eye seene in the teares, teares in her eye, Both christals, where they viewd ech others sorrow. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., II. iii. 56. Goe cleare thy Chrystalls.

a. 1616.  Beaum. & Fl., Cust. Country, I. ii. Bid the coy wench … out-blush damask roses, And dim the breaking East with her bright crystals.

  5.  Short for crystal-glass: a quality of glass having a high degree of transparency, usually due to its containing a large proportion of oxide of lead; also often a synonym for fine cut glass; hence, glass vessels, decanters, wine glasses, etc., of this quality collectively. [Ger. krystallglas.]

1594.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. Ep. to Rdr. Humors in the eyes, as it were the christall glasse set in the windowes.

c. 1645.  Howell, Lett., I. xxvii. 53. I was … in Murano, a little Island, wher Crystall-Glasse is made.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 659. English manufacturers … in improving the brilliancy of crystal-glass … have injured its fitness for constructing optical lenses.

1668.  Lady Chaworth, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 10. The King … hath lately made a closet which they call a cabinet of cristall and philigrin.

1735.  Dict. Polygraph., Crystal is also a name given to a factitious body cast in the glass-houses, also call’d crystal-glass…. Of this fritt, you may make common glass, and also Crystal.

1831.  Brewster, Optics, viii. 75. Let us take another [prism] of flint glass or white crystal.

1855.  Thackeray, Newcomes, II. 294. Eyeing the plate and crystal.

  6.  (with a and pl.) A vessel or other article made of this glass; orig. called a crystal glass; esp. the glass of a watch-case. Also fig. applied to the eyes.

  1613.  Heywood, Braz. Age, II. ii. Wks. 1874, III. 184. Looke on me Adon with a stedfast eye, That in these Christall glasses I may see My beauty.

1656.  Sanderson, Serm. (1689), 370. The breaking of a Christal glass or China dish.

  1651.  Davenant, Gondibert, VI. xiii. And thence … In a small Christall he a Cordiall drew.

1678.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1292/4. A Picture of a Lady in Little, in a black Shagrine Case … with a Christal over the Picture.

1873.  Morley, Rousseau, II. 43. Tall crystals laden with flowers.

  † 7.  The crystalline lens of the eye. Obs. rare.

1694.  Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. 135. The Crystal of the Eye is not much bigger than a Pea.

  † 8.  pl. Transparent vesicular eruptions or pustules appearing in certain diseases. Obs.

1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 327. Hereto belong the crystals, tubercles, rubeols, and rossals.

[1882.  Syd. Soc. Lex., Crystalli, old name applied to the transparent vesicular eruption of pemphigus; also, to that of varicella.]

  9.  Chem. and Min. A form in which the molecules of many simple elements and their natural compounds regularly aggregate by the operation of molecular affinity: it has a definite internal structure, with the external form of a solid enclosed by a number of symmetrically arranged plane faces, and varying in simplicity from a cube to much more complex geometrical bodies.

  So called because of the resemblance in color, transparency, and regularity of shape, between native specimens of (rock-)crystal and the forms assumed by salts, etc., in the process of crystallization from a solution, aided by the ancient notion that rock-crystal was itself a substance like ice produced by some process from water.

a. 1626.  Bacon, Wks. (1753), I. 352 ( (J.). If the menstruum be overcharged, then within a short time the metals will shoot into certain crystals.

1672.  P. F. Lana, in Phil. Trans., Abr. I. 720 (title), Reflections on an Observation of Signior M. Antonio Castagna concerning the Formation of Crystals.

1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Chrystallization … by which the Salts dissolved in any Liquor are made to shoot into little prettily figured Lumps or Fragments which they call Chrystals, from their being pellucid or clear like Chrystal.

1876.  Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., vii. 126. Granite is composed of crystals of felspar, quartz, and mica.

1878.  Huxley, Physiogr., 59. The term ‘crystal’ is now applied to all symmetrical solid shapes assumed spontaneously by lifeless matter.

  † b.  Used in the old names of various chemical salts of crystalline form, as crystals of alum, copper, Mars (= iron), silver, tartar, Venus (= copper), etc. Now mostly Obs.

1662.  R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 101. 172. Chrystal of Tartar … to be had at any Druggist.

1706.  Phillips, Crystals of Silver … Silver reduc’d into the Form of a Salt by the sharp Points of Spirit of Nitre: These Crystals are us’d by Surgeons to make an Eschar.

1727–51.  Chambers, Cycl., Crystals of Mars … iron reduced into a salt by an acid liquor; used in diseases arising from obstructions.

1730–6.  Bailey (folio), Crystals of Copper, is a solution of copper in spirit of nitre, evaporated and crystallized to gain the salt; those crystals are used as caustics.

1811.  A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 501. Take of … crystals of tartar, rubbed to a very fine powder, two ounces.

1882.  Syd. Soc. Lex., Crystals of Venus, crystallised neutral acetate of copper.

  c.  Crystals: A particular quality of refined crystallized sugar.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 943. There are three classes of sugar-refineries in this country, the chief productions of which are, respectively:—1st Loaf-sugar. 2nd Crystals (i. e. large, well-formed, dry white crystals of sugar). 3rd Crushed sugar.

1886.  Daily News, 15 Sept., 2/4. Sugar…. Russian crystals continue active.

  10.  ‘A very fine wide Durant [a glazed woollen stuff], once an article of export for use in making nuns’ veils. Invariably made white’ (Beck, Drapers’ Dict.). [Cf. Sp. cristal fine shining woollen stuff.]

  11.  Her. = Argent or pearl.

1830.  Robson, Brit. Heraldry, III. Gloss., Crystal, used by some heralds instead of pearl, to express argent.

  B.  attrib. and adj.

  1.  Composed of crystal: a. of rock-crystal; b. of crystal glass.

c. 1325.  E. E. Allit. P., A. 159. A crystal clyffe ful relusaunt.

1569.  trans. Bellay’s Visions, iv. in Theat. Worldlings. The chapters Alabaster, Christall frises.

a. 1631.  Donne, Poems (1650), 23. Hither with Crystall vials, lovers come, And take my teares.

1648.  Boyle, Seraph. Love, xi. (1700), 59. Your Mistresses Picture, and its Chrystal Cover.

1858.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 371. Four bright crystal tumblers.

1860.  Emerson, Cond. Life, Behavior, Wks. (Bohn), II. 383. Geneva watches with crystal faces.

  2.  Clear and transparent like crystal.

1430.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. xii. 195. Besyde the riuer of a cristall welle.

1509.  Hawes, Past. Pleas., IV. xviii. Her crystall eyes full of lowlenes.

c. 1576.  Thynne, Ld. Burghley’s Crest, i. in Animadv., App. iv. (1865), 103. With cristalle starres twinklinge in azurd skye.

a. 1652.  Brome, Queen, IV. iii. How black and fowl your Sin Is rendred by my Chrystal innocence.

1727–46.  Thomson, Summer, 1245. The well-known pool, whose crystal depth A sandy bottom shows.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxx. (1856), 260. The crystal transparency of an icicle.

  † b.  Sometimes with a reference to the crystalline heavens of old Astronomy. Obs.

c. 1485.  Digby Myst. (1882), I. 57. A-boue all kynges … vnder the Clowdys Cristall.

1718.  Pope, Iliad, XI. 445. Shouts, as he past, the crystal regions rend.

1738.  Wesley, Psalms cxlvii. 2. Shine to his Praise, ye chrystal Skies, The Floor of his Abode.

  c.  Comb., as crystal-clear, -dropping, -flowing, -leaved, -like, -producing, -smooth, -streaming, -winged, etc. adjs.; crystal-wise adv.; crystal-glass, see CRYSTAL 5, 6; crystal palace: see PALACE; crystal-seer, one who professes to see secrets, etc., in pieces of crystal, so crystal-seeing [cf. Germ. krystallsehen, -seher]; † crystal-stone = A. 2 above; crystal violet, a name of one of the aniline dyes.

a. 1650.  May, Old Couple, II. in Hazl., Dodsley, XII. 30. She wail’d Adonis’ death, And from her *crystal-dropping eyes did pay A lover’s obsequy.

1567.  Maplet, Gr. Forest, 5 b. The Diamond is … in colour almost *Christallike, but somewhat more resplendishing.

1855.  Smedley, Occult Sci., 323. *Crystal-seeing has now become very common. Ibid. Some *crystal-seers can discover nothing unless certain magical words are pronounced by the operator.

1818.  Keats, Endymion, III. 382. How *crystal-smooth it felt.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pard. Prol., 19. Thanne shewe I forth my longe *cristal stones.

a. 1490.  Botoner, Itin. (Nasmith, 1778), 224. Lapides vocat cristalle-stonys.

1584.  R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XV. xii. 344. To have a spirit inclosed into a christall stone or berill glasse.

1573.  G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 103.