Crescent

the moon in its first quarter,--the new moon. The word is Latin, meaning increasing, and has no reference to shape. It was applied to the new moon as growing, increasing; but the name has been transferred from the growth to the curved shape, the thick body, and tapering horns of the young moon, and, inappropriately, to the last quarter, when the lighted portion of the moon is indeed sickle shaped, but is waning instead of waxing. The Egyptian and the Greek worshipers of the moon decorated their goddesses, Isis and Silene, with the crescent. Athenian citizens of illustrious birth were permitted to wear crescents of silver and ivory on their buskins as insignia of rank. The patricians of Rome claimed a similar privilege. The crescent was adopted by the Roman empire as the symbol of growing power and eternal dominion. The crescent was favored in the eastern cities, as at Byzantium, possibly by way of distinction from the Roman eagle, the military emblem particularly of Rome and the western empire. The Turks appear to have adopted the crescent after they took Constantinople. Since that date the crescent has been the emblem of Islam, as the cross is the emblem of Christianity. New Orleans, built around a bend of the Mississippi river, is on that account called "The Crescent City.