Cryomill

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Equipment that pulverizes samples into fine powder while they are kept frozen in liquid nitrogen or another extremely cold medium
2. A grinding device used in laboratories to reduce brittle or heat-sensitive materials to powder by chilling them to very low temperatures
3. An apparatus that crushes and mills substances at cryogenic temperatures so that heat generated during grinding does not alter them

Etymology: "Cryomill" is a plain compound: "cryo-", from Greek "kryos" meaning "icy cold", joined to "mill", the English word for a machine that grinds material down. Put together, the name describes exactly what the machine does: it grinds samples while keeping them frozen, usually with liquid nitrogen. The prefix "cryo-" is a modern scientific element, used since the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to build terms about low temperatures, such as "cryogenics" and "cryotherapy." The ancient Greeks had "kryos" for frost and cold, but they never had machines like this. The compound was assembled by scientists working in English-speaking laboratories, who needed a short label for an apparatus that keeps brittle or heat-sensitive material from degrading as it is milled.