quartz

quartz

English

A quartz crystal.

Etymology

From German Quarz, from Middle High German (Central East German) quarz, twarc, from a West Slavic language [compare Polish twardy (“hard”), Czech tvrdý (“hard”)], from Proto-Slavic *tvьrdъ.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k(w)ɔːts/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /k(w)ɔɹts/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːts, -ɔɹts
• Homophone: courts (some accents)
• Homophone: quarts

Noun

quartz (countable and uncountable, plural quartzes)

1. (mineralogy) The most abundant mineral on the earth's surface, of chemical composition silicon dioxide, SiO₂. It occurs in a variety of forms, both crystalline and amorphous. Found in every environment.
   • 1883, George Downing Liveing and James Dewar, “On the Ultra-Violet Spectra of the Elements”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, volume 174, Barrison and Sons, part I, page 188:

     The telescope and collimator have each an object-glass consisting of a single lens of quartz 1½ inch diameter and a focal length of 18½ inches for the sodium yellow light, but not more than 16 inches for the highest rays measured.

   • 1892 April 1, Armiger Barczinsky, “The Golden Snail”, in Sylvanus Urban (pseudonym of Edward Cave), editor, The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 272, page 331:

     Subsequently, the old Malay brought him the present specimen in a state of torpidity, telling him he had found him it in a cavity of the quartz reef.

   • 1948, Theodore Roethke, “The Shape of the Fire”, in The Lost Son and Other Poems:

     My meat eats me. Who waits at the gate? / Mother of quartz, your words writhe into my ear. / Renew the light, lewd whisper.

2. (uncountable, slang) Crystal meth: methamphetamine hydrochloride.

Synonyms

• Thesaurus:quartz

Derived terms

• drusy quartz
• fused quartz
• megaquartz
• microquartz
• quartz clock
• quartz crystal
• quartz glass
• quartz halogen lamp
• quartz heater
• quartziferous
• quartzing
• quartz-iodine lamp
• quartzite
• quartz lamp
• quartzolite
• quartzose
• quartz watch
• rose quartz
• shocked quartz
• smoky quartz

 

Related terms

• Colorado topaz

Translations

mineral

Afrikaans: kwarts Arabic: مَرْو‎ m (marw), كَوَارْتْز‎ m (kawārtz) Armenian: կվարց (hy) (kvarcʿ) Belarusian: кварц m (kvarc) Bulgarian: кварц m (kvarc) Catalan: quars m Central Sierra Miwok: hós·ok·iliwa- Chinese: Mandarin: 水晶 (zh) (shuǐjīng) (gem), 石英 (zh) (shíyīng) (mineral) Czech: křemen (cs) m Danish: kvarts (da) c Dutch: kwarts (nl) n Esperanto: kvarco Estonian: kvarts Faroese: kvarts n Finnish: kvartsi (fi), ukonkivi (fi) French: quartz (fr) m, cristal de roche (fr) m Galician: seixo m, souxo m, cuarzo (gl) m Georgian: კვარცი (ḳvarci) German: Quarz (de) m Greek: χαλαζίας (el) m (chalazías) Hebrew: קְוָרץ‎ (he) Hindi: क्वार्टज़ m (kvārṭaz), स्फटिक (hi) m (sphaṭik) Hungarian: kvarc (hu) Icelandic: kvars (is) m Indonesian: kuarsa (id) Irish: grianchloch f Italian: quarzo (it) m Japanese: 水晶 (ja) (すいしょう, suishō) (gem), 石英 (ja) (せきえい, sekiei) (mineral) Korean: 석영(石英) (ko) (seogyeong) Latvian: kvarcs m Lithuanian: kvarcas m Macedonian: кварц m (kvarc) Malay: Rumi: kuarza (ms) Maori: takawai, kiripaka Navajo: tsé áwózí, tséghádiʼńdínii Polish: kwarc (pl) m Portuguese: quartzo (pt) m, quarço (pt) m Romanian: cuarț (ro) n Russian: кварц (ru) m (kvarc) Scottish Gaelic: èiteag f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ква̏рц m Roman: kvȁrc (sh) m Slovak: kremeň (sk) m Slovene: krêmen (sl) m Spanish: cuarzo (es) m Swahili: kwatsi, shondo Swedish: kvarts (sv) c Tagalog: kuwarso, kinyang Turkish: kuvars (tr) Ukrainian: кварц m (kvarc) Vietnamese: thạch anh (vi) (石英) Welsh: cwarts (cy) m, carreg wen f, creigrisial m Yiddish: קיזל‎ m (kizl)

See also

Related terms

• amethyst
• aventurine
• buhrstone
• cairngorm
• chalcedony
• chrysoprase
• citrine
• coesite
• flint
• greisen
• onyx
• phenacite
• prase
• rock crystal
• rubasse
• stishovite
• topaz

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from German Quarz, from a West Slavic language, from Proto-Slavic *tvьrdъ (“hard”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwaʁts/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

quartz m (plural quartz)

1. quartz

   Synonym: cristal de roche

Descendants

• → Catalan: quars

Further reading

• “quartz”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.