crystalloclastn.
/ˈkrɪstələ(ʊ)klast/, /ˈkrɪstələ(ʊ)klɑːst/, U.S. /ˈkrɪstələˌklæst/ A person who breaks crystals in order to study them.Originally used depreciatively by the mineralogist J. B. L. de Romé de l'Isle (1736–90) with reference to his rival R. J. Haüy (1743–1822) who made advances in crystallography by splitting crystals and examining their structure.
ΚΠ
1837 W. Whewell tr. R. de l'Isle in Hist. Inductive Sci. III. xv. ii. 205 Innovators in crystallography, who may properly be called crystalloclasts.
1897 G. D. Hinrichs Introd. Gen. Chem. xcviii. 373 The true origin of secondary faces was discovered by the crystalloclast, Hauy.
1924 T. V. Barker in E. F. Armstrong Chem. in Twentieth Cent. (1925) 58 Haüy commenced his work by breaking crystals along their natural planes of cleavage. He was not the first ‘crystalloclast’, as Delisle would have us believe.
1954 J. D. H. Donnay et al. Crystal Data 137 Others, refusing to turn crystalloclasts, have invented ingenious devices to rock the single crystal in the x-ray beam.
1994 Mineral. Rec. (Nexis) 1 Nov. 53 He derisively referred to Hauy as a crystalloclast (‘breaker of crystals’).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1837