crab

crab¹ crustacean

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crabbe, inherited from Old English crabba,^[1][3][2][7] inherited from Proto-Germanic *krabbô.^[3] Its cognates include Old Norse krabbi, Middle Low German krabbe, Middle Dutch crabbe, Dutch krab and, with another suffix, Old High German krebiz, Middle High German krebez and German Krebs (“crayfish”);^[4][8][9][2] krebiz is the source of écrevisse and so of crayfish.^[4][10][9] The animal seems to be named "the scratcher", for its claws:^[9][5] the word is related to Middle Low German krabben (“to scratch, claw”), krabbelen and Old Norse krafla (“to scratch”),^{[3][8][11][9]} and Etymonline and Merriam-Webster connect it with the root of carve.^[3][1] Barnhart gives an Indo-European root meaning to scratch.^[12] crabe (13th century) was borrowed from Germanic, probably Norse.^[3][4] The OED stresses that the word has no connection with Latin cancer.^[4] The verb meaning to find fault was first a falconer's word, used of hawks that claw each other, from Middle Low German krabben;^[11][4][13] Etymonline and Barnhart derive it rather from crabbed.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A ten-legged crustacean with a broad shell and a front pair of pincers: Old English, in the vocabularies edited by Wright and Wülcker,^[4][14] about 1000 in Barnhart.^[2] It appears as a surname in 1188,^[2] and the name of the zodiacal constellation, the Crab, also goes back to Old English.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The shape of the animal gave the crab-louse (1540s), shortened to crab from 1840,^[3][4] and the Crab Nebula in Taurus (1840s), named for its shape.^[3][4] Machines with claws for hoisting weights were called crabs from the 17th century: a small capstan (1631), a three-legged hoisting frame (1627–1753) and the travelling gear of a crane (1874).^[4] Weekley compares crane and other animal names for machines.^[13] To catch a crab, to make a faulty stroke in rowing, is recorded from 1785;^[3] Weekley explains it as if a crab had seized the oar.^[13] The crab's sideways gait gave verbs: to drift to leeward (1867, in Smyth's Sailor's Word-Book),^[4] and in aviation to fly at an angle to the line of flight to offset a crosswind (1929);^[4][11] crabbing, fishing for crabs, is from the 1650s.^[3][11] The falconer's verb, of hawks that scratch and fight (1575),^[4] became slang and stable talk for running down or finding fault with someone (1819),^[4][15] and since 1899 has also meant to spoil a scheme;^[4][11] in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire dialect it meant to scold or pull to pieces.^[16] The noun for a complaint followed in 1893.^[4][11] In dialect crab-fish was the common crab, and crab-gaited meant walking sideways.^[16]

Timeline

• Old English – the crustacean; the constellation Cancer.^[4]
• 1188 – as a surname.^[2]
• 1540s – crab-louse.^[3]
• 1575 – (falconry) of hawks, to claw and fight.^[4]
• 1631 – a small capstan.^[4]
• 1650s – crabbing, fishing for crabs.^[3]
• 1785 – to catch a crab in rowing.^[3]
• 1819 – (slang) to find fault with, criticize.^[4]
• 1840 – a crab louse.^[3][4]
• 1893 – noun, a complaint.^[4]
• 1929 – (aviation) to fly at an angle to offset drift.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A crustacean with a broad flat shell, a short tail folded under the body, and a front pair of legs formed as pincers; the flesh of such an animal eaten as food.
2. A crab louse; in the plural, an infestation of crab lice.
3. A machine for hoisting or hauling heavy weights, such as a small capstan or the travelling hoist of a crane.
4. the Crab: the constellation and zodiac sign Cancer.
5. (informal) A complaint; an objection.

Verb

1. To fish for or catch crabs.
2. To move sideways or at an angle, like a crab: The skier crabbed slowly up the slope. In aviation, to head an aircraft into a crosswind so that it does not drift.
3. (informal) To find fault with; to grumble or complain.
4. (informal) To spoil or obstruct a plan or deal.
5. (falconry) Of hawks, to claw and fight each other.

Word family

• crabber
• crablike
• crabwise
• crab louse
• crabmeat

crab² wild apple

Etymology

The wild apple is crabbe, of uncertain origin.^[2][4][3][1] Some take it as a figurative use of the animal's name, comparing its awkward, contrary nature with the sour fruit;^[2][5][9][1] others connect it with Scots scrab, recorded in Scots from the early 16th century, and dialectal Swedish skrabba (“wild apple”), which may be the original form, later assimilated to the animal's name or to crabbed.^{[4][8][11][13][5]} Etymonline compares Swedish krabbäpple.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fruit of the wild apple tree: about 1300 in Etymonline and before 1300 in Barnhart, with place names from the mid-13th century;^[3][2] the OED's earliest quotations are c1425 for the tree and c1450 for the fruit.^[4] Weekley argued from the common Yorkshire surname Crabtree that the word must be centuries older than its first recorded use.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The sourness of the fruit gave crab as a name for a sour person, recorded from 1574;^[4][2] the OED notes that later uses for a crabbed, ill-tempered person are often a back-formation from crabbed, and might come from the animal.^[4][12] The noun is in general dialect use in Scotland and England for a sour, disagreeable person.^[16] Johnson (1755) used the word as an adjective for any sour or degenerate fruit, as a crab cherry.^[17] A walking stick or cudgel of crab-tree wood is a crab from 1740,^[4][3] and crab apple itself is recorded by 1712.^[2][3] In Cheshire the people of Mobberley were nicknamed Mobberley Crabs.^[16] The adjective crabby meant crooked or gnarled in 1550, and peevish from 1776.^[12]

Timeline

• mid-13th century – in place names.^[3]
• c. 1300 – crabbe, the wild apple.^[3]
• c1425 – the wild apple tree.^[4]
• 1574 – a sour person.^[4]
• 1712 – crab apple.^[2][3]
• 1740 – a cudgel of crab-tree wood.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A crab apple, a small sour wild apple; also, the tree that bears it.
2. A sour, ill-tempered person; a grouch.
3. (archaic) A walking stick or cudgel of crab-tree wood.

Word family

• crab apple
• crabby
• crabstick
• crabtree