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-iodine lamp
• quartz clock
• quartz crystal
• quartz glass
• quartz halogen lamp
• quartz heater
• quartziferous
• quartzing
• quartzite
• quartz lamp
• quartzolite
• quartzose
• quartz watch
• rose quartz
• shocked quartz
• smoky quartz
• snow 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

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.