cryptomorphic

English

Etymology

Coined by Garrett Birkhoff before 1967, for use in the third edition of his book Lattice Theory.

Adjective

cryptomorphic (not comparable)

1. (mathematics) Two objects, especially systems of axioms or semantics for them, are called cryptomorphic if they are equivalent (possibly in some informal sense) but not obviously equivalent.
   • 1994, Michael Henle, A Combinatorial Introduction to Topology, page 269:

     Find them, and prove that an operation satisfying them provides another cryptomorphic version of topology 8.

2. Having a form that obscures or masks the underlying meaning or purpose.
   • 1883, Royal Society of Canada, Déliberations Et Mémoires de la Société Royale Du Canada, page 58:

     Some degree of light may perhaps be thrown on the cryptomorphic condition of bodies in combination, by our knowledge of the typical conditions of natural bodies generally, when uncombined.

   • 1988, Sidney Geist, Interpreting Cézanne, page 46:

     But there are two drawings and a painting that will be shown to be of Cézanne père and that have not been recognized as such — because he is without the hat he wears in the works mentioned above — as well as cryptomorphic portraits that are also hatless, all done, we may be sure, from memory.

   • 2004, James Elkins, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles?:, page 186:

     I can imagine, for example, constructing the argument that Poe's Purloined Letter is the locus classicus for all cryptomorphic revelations.

   • 2016, R. Burt, Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media, page 83:

     I call this image cryptomorphic because it hides as it reveals, unlike the skull in Holbein's “Ambassadors”; that is, this smeared film image does not reveal a hidden image behind the smear.

3. (genetics) Having a cryptic structure in which the ultimate active product is carried by the precursorial protein rather than the protein actually encoded by the gene.
   • 2002, Gurbachan S. Miglani, Advanced Genetics, page 193:

     Three types of genes, namely, immunoglobulin genes, dimorphic genes and cryptomorphic genes, are classified as complex genes.

   • 1987, Lawrence S. Dillon, The Gene: Its Structure, Function, and Evolution, page 487:

     Hence, among the lower vertebrates, the cistron may be diplomorphic rather than cryptomorphic.

4. (earth science) Found or occurring below the soil layer.
   • 1930, Economic Geology and the Bulletin of the Society of Economic Geologists: Volume 46, page 125:

     Either the cryptomorphic silica replaced the microcrystalline dolomite, followed by mineralization or the reverse, in the order of silicification, is possible.

   • 2004, Andrews Mangement Unit/Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area: Environmental Impact Statement, page 3-8:

     Cryptomorphic biological soil crusts are the most difficult to observe and occur to a lesser known extent within the Planning Area .

   • 2008, D. V. Lopatin, “Cryptomorphic Structures of the Lithosphere: Their Reflection on Space Images and the Earth's Surface”, in Doklady Earth Sciences, volume 421, page 983:

     The vertical flow of the substance may scatter and create dissipative cryptomorphic structures on the surface, which are poorly expressed in the relief.

   • 2011, D. Zachar, Soil Erosion, page 47:

     The first group includes surface phenomena (i.e. exomorphic, or superficial phenomena), and the second group comprises underground phenomena (i.e. cryptomorphic, or subficial phenomena).

5. (crystallography) Composed of minerals that are not expressed in their crystalline form.
   • 1925, The Mineralogical Magazine and Journal of the Mineralogical Society - Volume 20, page 309:

     Both have 'cryptomorphic' types which are similar in composition but in which no felspar has crystallized.

Related terms

• cryptomorphism