Forms: α. 4–7 cressant, 5 cressaunt, 5–7 cressent, (8 cresent); β. 6–7 croissant, 7 croy-, croisant; γ. 7– crescent. [ME. cressant, in 16th c. also croissant, a. OF. creissant, mod.F. croissant (:—L. crēscent-em), pr. pple. of OF. creistre, mod. croître:—L. crēscĕre to grow. In 17th c. assimilated to the L. spelling, already used in the adj.: see next.
L. crescens meant simply ‘growing, waxing’; Columella has luna crescens, the waxing moon, luna decrescens, the waning moon; but these words had no reference to shape; sense 2 was a mediæval development, app. in French.]
1. The waxing moon, during the period between new moon and full. [Cf. OF. creissant the waxing of the moon, the first half of the month.] Also fig.
1530. Palsgr., 210/2. Cressent, the newe mone as long as it is nat rounde, cressant.
1620. Feltham, Resolves, xxviii. 88. Thus while he sinnes, he is a Decressant; when he repents, a Cressant.
1640. Fuller, Joseph’s Coat, viii. (1867), 192. They are crescents in their waxing, full seas in their flowing.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., ccxxvii. A worke ’bove Nature’s power, To make his Crescent Orbed in an Hower.
2. The convexo-concave figure of the waxing or the waning moon, during the first or last quarter, especially when very new or very old.
The crescent of the waxing moon has its horns to the spectator’s left, that of the waning moon has them to his right.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IV. xxxi. 489. Turned rounde like a croissant or newe moone.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 246. Hee is no crescent, and his hornes are inuisible.
1611. Cotgr., Croissant, the halfe-moone; in Blazon, a Cressant.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 24. If the higher horne of the said croisant be more obscure and darke than the lower.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xliv. 232. Phœbe’s pale cresent.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 349. The bright crescent of the moon, which looked like a little silver lamp hung up in a palace of clouds.
1842. Tennyson, Audley C. A moon, that, just In crescent, dimly rain’d about the leaf Twilights of airy silver.
3. A representation or figure of this phase of the moon: a. as an ornament or embellishment. (App. the earliest sense in English.)
1399. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 132. Super feretrum Sancti Wilfridi de diversis ornamentis per dictum Johannem deauratis viz. j curc et j anulo et j cressant ex dono Willelmi Bedell.
1483. Cath. Angl., 81/1. A Cressent a bowte þe nek, torques, lunula.
1548. Hall, Chron., 74 b. This cresant was couered with frettes and knottes made of Iue busshes.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 127. On his black shooe a silver cressent ’s worn.
1885. Bible (R.V.), Judg. viii. 21. Gideon … took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks.
b. Her. as a charge: see quot. 1882.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., B iij b. The ix. baage is Cressauntis that is to say halfe the moone.
c. 1500. Sc. Poem Heraldry, 44, in Q. Eliz. Acad., etc. 95. The fader the hole [arms], the eldast son deffer[e]nt, quhiche a labelle; a cressent the secound; third a molet; [etc.].
1603. Drayton, Bar. Wars, II. xxiv. The Noble Percy … With a bright Cressant in his Guide-home came.
1882. Cussans, Her., 102. A Half-Moon, with the horns directed upwards, is a crescent…. A Crescent with the horns directed towards the Dexter, is said to be Increscent; and if towards the Sinister, Decrescent.
c. Adopted as a badge or emblem by the Turkish sultans, and used within their dominions as a military and religious symbol; hence fig. the Turkish power, and, as this has been to Christendom in recent times the most formidable and aggressive Mohammedan power, used rhetorically to symbolize the Mohammedan religion as a political force, and so opposed to the Cross as the symbol of Christianity.
The attribution of the crescent by modern writers to the Saracens of Crusading times and the Moors of Spain is a historical and chronological error.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. (Arb.), 117. Selim Emperour of Turkie gaue for his deuice a croissant or new moone, promising to himself increase of glory and enlargement of empire.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 162. With the Mahumedan Turks, the Croissant … as a Religious symbole, is … commonly set on the top of their Meschits, Seraglias, Turrets and such like.
16[?]. Marvell, Britannia & Raleigh. Her true Crusada shall at last pull down The Turkish crescent and the Persian sun.
1684. Scanderbeg Rediv., iv. 90. The Crescent gave way to the Cross, the Turks were broken to pieces.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 43. Why do you dress up one … with a turban and crescent?
1811. Scott, Vis. Don Roderick, I. xxvii. Before the Cross has waned the Crescent’s ray.
1823. Lockhart, Anc. Span. Ball., Flight fr. Granada, ii. Down from the Alhambra’s minarets were all the crescents flung.
1855. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Hist., iv. 120. To raise the Christian banner, over the crescent of the Saracens.
1886. F. Harrison, Choice Bks. (1888), 331. The Crescent was advancing steadily upon Europe.
d. used as the badge of an order of knighthood or as a decorative order.
An order of the Crescent was instituted by Charles I. of Naples and Sicily in 1268, and revived or reinstituted by René of Anjou in 1464. A Turkish decoration or order of the Crescent for foreigners was instituted by Sultan Selim after the Battle of Aboukir in 1799, being first conferred on Nelson.
4. A figure or outline of anything of this shape.
[1572. Gascoigne, Flowers (R.). The Christian crew came on in forme of battayle pight, And like a cressent cast themselues preparing for to fight.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xxiv. 88. A very fair Port … extending it self in the form of a Crescent.]
1672. Descr. Lake of Geneva, in Phil. Trans., VII. 5043. This Lake hath the figure of a Croissant…. This Croissant where ’tis largest, which is from Morges to Thonon, is about Five good Leagues over.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 130. The breast is distinguished by a crescent of pure white.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, I. i. The centre of a crescent of woods.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, II. 281. As they came near they bent their line into a crescent.
5. A row of houses built in the form of the inner bow of a crescent moon or arc of a circle.
First used in the name of ‘the Royal Crescent’ at Bath, afterwards used elsewhere, and hence as a generic name.
1766. Anstey, Bath Guide, 45. Old Stucco has just sent A plan for a house to be built in the Crescent.
1788. Birm. Gaz., 17 Nov. A plan, elevation and section of the intended building to be called the Crescent.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., II. xxxv. 163. There were blown into the Crescent a sedan-chair, with Mrs. Dowler inside.
1868. A. K. H. Boyd, Lessons Mid. Age, 299. The handsome streets, crescents and terraces which form the west end of Glasgow.
6. A small crescent-shaped roll of bread. (U.S.)
1886. Mary Weatherbee, in Century Mag., XXXII. 939/2. At noon I bought two crisp ‘crescents,’ which I ate sometimes at a shop counter.
7. A Turkish musical instrument consisting of a staff with arms, ornamented with a crescent on the top, and bearing bells or jingles.
In mod. Dicts.
8. A disease in a horse’s foot (see quots.).
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v., Crescents … are really nothing but the Bones of the little Foot that has left its Place, and fallen downwards, and the Sole at the Toe appears round, and the Hoof above shrinks in.
1823. Crabb, Technol. Dict., Crescent, a defect in the foot of a horse when the coffin-bone falls down, and presses the sole outwards.
9. Lace-making (See quot.)
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, s.v., These crescents are raised Cordonnets that enclose the flat stitches of needle point laces or join the separate pieces of work together.
10. Comb., as crescent-formed, -lit, -pointed, -shaped adjs.; crescent-like, -wise advs.
a. 1631. Drayton, Wks., II. 761 (Jod.). As, crescentlike, the land her breadth here inward bends.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), I. 316. Keel crescent-shaped, compressed.
1807. Southey, Thalaba, III. xxxviii. The Sun, Whose crescent-pointed horns Now momently decrease.
