"C" Word Origins

crammer

Origin

From cram + -er.

cramp

Old French

From Old French crampe, ultimately from a Frankish/Germanic word meaning "cramp" or "clasp" — distantly related to "crop".

crampfish

Origin

From cramp + fish.

crampon

Origin

Borrowed from French crampon.

crampoon

Origin

From French crampon.

cranberry

German · 1600

Borrowed in the 1600s from a Low German word meaning literally "crane-berry", because the plant's stem and blossom reminded people of a crane's head and neck.

crandall

Origin

Probably from the name Crandall.

crane

Old English

From Old English cran, a Germanic word for the bird; the lifting machine was named later because it resembles the bird's long neck and beak.

Cranford

Old English

From Old English cran ("crane") plus ford.

cranial

Origin

From cranium plus the adjective ending -al.

cranium

Ancient Greek

From Medieval Latin cranium ("skull"), from Ancient Greek kranion.

crank

Germanic

From a Germanic word (via Dutch/Low German krank) originally meaning "bent" or "weak" — the mechanical handle is named for its bent shape.

cranky

German

From crank plus the adjective ending -y, related to a Low German word for "sickly" or "unwell".

cranny

Old French

From Middle English crany, likely from Old French cran ("notch"), of uncertain deeper origin.

Cranston

Old English

From the genitive form of Old English cran ("crane") plus tūn ("enclosure; settlement").

crap

Origin

From crab's eyes.

crape

Origin

Alteration of French crepe, from Middle French crespe (“curly”), from Latin crispus. Doublet of crisp and crepe.

crapface

Origin

From crap + face.

crapflood

Origin

From crap + flood.

craphead

Origin

From crap + head.

craphole

Origin

From crap + hole.

craphouse

Origin

From crap + house.

crapload

Origin

From crap + load.

crapper

Origin

From crap plus -er; popularly linked to plumber Thomas Crapper, though the slang word predates and is only coincidentally similar to his name.

crappy

Origin

From crap plus the adjective ending -y.

craps

Origin

From Louisiana Creole craps, itself an alteration of the English word "crabs" (an old term for the lowest throw at dice).

crapulence

Origin

From crapulent + -ence, from Latin crapula (“excessive drinking, intoxication”).

crash

Middle English

From Middle English crasshen ("to break into pieces"), likely blending words for breaking and cracking; imitative of the sound itself.

crasher

Origin

From crash plus the agent suffix -er, in the sense "one who crashes (a party)".

crass

Latin

From Latin crassus, "thick" or "dense" — the word originally described physical bulk before it came to mean mentally or socially "thick" (insensitive).

Crassus

Latin

From Latin Crassus.

crate

Dutch

From Dutch krat, "large box" or "basket" — related to the English word cart.

crateful

Origin

From crate + -ful.

crater

Latin

From Latin crater, "mixing bowl," borrowed from Greek — the shape of an impact hollow reminded early scientists of a large bowl.

cravat

French · 1600

From French cravate, originally referring to a Croat (Croatian) mercenary — Croatian soldiers in 17th-century France wore a distinctive neck scarf that French fashion later copied and named after them.

crave

Old English

From Old English crafian, "to demand or beg" — the sense softened over time from a formal demand to a strong personal desire.

craven

Old French

From Middle English cravant, from Old French cravanté, "defeated" — the word originally meant someone who had been beaten, and later came to describe someone too cowardly to fight at all.

craving

Origin

From crave + the suffix -ing, turning the verb into a noun for the feeling itself.

craw

German

From Middle Dutch or Low German crāghe, "neck" or "throat" — related to the modern German word Kragen, "collar."

crawfish

Origin

A folk-etymology respelling of the older word crevis (compare crayfish), reshaped in English because it sounded like "fish."

crawl

Old Norse

From Old Norse krafla, "to crawl or creep" — related to words in Danish and Swedish meaning the same thing.

crawler

Origin

From crawl + the agent suffix -er, "one that crawls."

Crawley

Old English

From Old English crāwe ("crow") plus lēah ("wood, clearing").

cray

Origin

A clipped, shortened form of crayfish; the slang "crazy" sense is an unrelated informal respelling that became popular in internet and pop-culture slang.

crayfish

Old French

From Old French crevice, reshaped in English under the influence of the word "fish" — it has no real connection to fish at all.

crayon

Latin

From French crayon, "pencil," from craie, "chalk," ultimately from Latin creta, "chalk" or "clay."

craze

Middle English

From Middle English crasen, "to shatter or break apart," from Old Norse — the modern "fad" sense developed later, as if popular enthusiasm were a kind of mental crack.

crazy

Origin

From craze ("to crack or shatter") plus -y — the idea of a mind that has "cracked" led to the modern meaning of insane or wildly irrational.