[Gr. κρᾶσις mixture, combination (also in the grammatical sense below), f. κεραννύναι to mix.]
1. The blending or combination of elements, ‘humours,’ or qualities, in the animal body, in herbs, etc. † a. As a permanent characteristic: Composition, constitution, temperament, ‘complexion.’ Obs.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, II. 647. His bodies crasis is angelicall.
1662. Glanvill, Lux Orient., iv. (1682), 32. He had transmitted … that excellent … temper of body, which should have been like his own happy crasis.
1768. Month. Rev., 597. They have imagined them [animal spirits] of a somewhat diverse crasis … in different bodies.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, I. xi. [Yorick] seemed not to have had one single drop of Danish blood in his whole crasis.
fig. 1652. Evelyn, State of France, Misc. Writ. (1805), 95. The complexion and crasis of this body politick.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. ii. 61. There are lodged in the very crasis and constitution of the Soul certain rational Instincts.
a. 1734. North, Exam., I. iii. § 91 (1740), 186. But the Crasis of Times must account for all such Indecencies.
b. The combination of ‘humours’ or qualities constituting a state of health or disease; (healthy or diseased) condition. ? Obs.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., II. i. (Arb.), 21. I have considered of the crasis, and syntoma of your disease.
1670. Maynwaring, Vita Sana, i. 6. The common virulent purgatives, that alienate the crases or ferments of the parts.
1767. Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 75, note. In a dissolved Crasis of the blood.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 418/b. In malignant petechial fevers the crasis is so broken as to deposit a sooty powder.
† c. In wider sense: Mingling, mixture, combination. Obs.
1677. Hale, Contempl., II. 56. The Heart is indeed the Crasis, or Collection of all the Powers of the Soul.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 440. A most pleasant Crasis or Euphony of Temper, Thoughts and Operations.
2. Gr. Gram. The combination of the vowels of two syllables, esp. at the end of one word and beginning of the next, into one long vowel or diphthong; as in κἀγώ for καὶ ἐγώ τοὔνομα for τὸ ὄνομα.
The explanation given in quot. 1836 is that of the late Greek Grammarians, and in the Greek Grammars of the 16th c.
1833. E. Robinson, trans. Buttmann’s Larger Grk. Gram., 60. Avoiding the hiatus … (1) by elision with the apostrophe; and (2) by contracting both syllables into one compound sound, or Crasis.
1836. Edin. Acad. Grk. Rudiments (ed. 4), 14. There are three modes of contraction: Crasis, Synæresis, and Syncope. Crasis is the mixture of two sounds with a change of the vowels: as τείχεος τείχους.
1863. W. Smith, trans. Curtius’ Gr. Gram., § 16. It [the coronis] indicates … a crasis … or contraction of two words. Ibid., § 89. With crasis the accent of the first word is lost.
