crystal

adj

Etymology: From Middle English crystal, cristal, criȝstall, representing a merger of Old English cristalla (from Latin crystallus) and Anglo-Norman cristall, Old French cristal (from Latin crystallum). The Latin is derived from Ancient Greek κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “clear ice”), from κρύος (krúos, “frost”), from Proto-Indo-European *krews- (“hard, hard outer surface, crust”).

1. Made of crystal.

   “Its ceiling was crystal, around on the wall / Thickly studded were rubies and diamonds rare; / But purer than crystal, and brighter than all / Of the jewels adorning her glittering hall, / Was the mermaiden languishing there.”

   “The walls were crystal, and they seemed to have hundreds of different-colored lights shifting behind them.”

2. Very clear; coherent.

   “"Do I make myself clear?" / "Crystal."”

   “[…] the more faire and chriſtall is the skie, The vglier ſeeme the cloudes that in it flye: […]”

name

1. A female given name from English.

   “"Crystal's pretty. The name, I mean." Jewel shook her head. "It doesn't look like her. She looks like Beaver Cleaver." […] Crys chuckled. For the first time since she'd planted herself fiercely on Lusa's driveway that morning she sounded clear and transparent, like a child. Like the crystal she was.”

   “"No prob. I'm wired, anyway...Christa or Crystal. Why'd Kayla peg her for a stripper?" "Because Gavin said she was a dancer," I said. "Well," he said, "name a girl Crystal and what's more likely? That she'll get a Ph.D. in biomechanics, or end up shaking her tail for tips?"”

2. A surname.

   “In this exhilarating and often hilarious book, David Crystal examines why we devote so much time and energy to language games, how professionals make a career of them, and how young children instinctively take to them.”

3. A ghost town in Gunnison County, Colorado.
4. A town in Maine.
5. A city in Minnesota.
6. A census-designated place in New Mexico.
7. A city and town in North Dakota.
8. A town in Wisconsin.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English crystal, cristal, criȝstall, representing a merger of Old English cristalla (from Latin crystallus) and Anglo-Norman cristall, Old French cristal (from Latin crystallum). The Latin is derived from Ancient Greek κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “clear ice”), from κρύος (krúos, “frost”), from Proto-Indo-European *krews- (“hard, hard outer surface, crust”).

1. 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.
2. A piece of glimmering, shining mineral resembling ice or glass.
3. A fine type of glassware, or the material used to make it.
4. Crystal meth; methamphetamine hydrochloride.

   “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.”

5. A person's eye.

   “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”

6. The glass over the dial of a watch case.