craft

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /krɑːft/, US /kræft/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English craft, inherited from Old English cræft (“power, strength; skill, art”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *kraftaz,^[4] which is also the source of Old Frisian kreft, Old Saxon kraft, Old High German chraft (German Kraft) and Old Norse kraptr (“strength, virtue”).^[2][3][4] It has no cognates outside Germanic,^[2][3] and its ultimate origin is uncertain, but Barnhart and MWU relate it to crave.^[4][2][5] The verb is cræftan (“to exercise a craft, build”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Skill, art: about 888 in the OED, before 899 in Alfred's translation of Boethius;^[6][2] power, strength, might, also in Alfred's works, is the original sense.^[2][6][4]

Semantic evolution

NODE notes that the shift from strength to skill took place only in English,^[7] by way of the notion of mental power.^[4] By late Old English the word also meant a trade or handicraft,^[4] and as the second element of compounds it means an art, as in handicraft, statecraft and witchcraft.^[3] In Middle English it also meant occult art or a spell (about 1205–20),^[6] and skill in deceiving, guile, which gave crafty, at first “skilful” and later “cunning”.^[3][8] The sense of a boat, at first in small craft (1671–72), may refer to the trade such boats did or to the small skill needed to handle them;^[2][4][8] it has spread to aircraft and spacecraft.^[9][10] The verb, to make skilfully, is from 1436, obsolete from the 16th century but revived by 1954, largely in American advertising.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 888 – skill, art, in Alfred.^[6][2]
• c. 893 – strength, power (obsolete).^[6]
• c. 1220 – occult art, magic.^[6]
• 1436 – to make skilfully.^[2]
• 1671–72 – small craft, boats.^[2]
• 1954 – the verb revived.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Skill in making things, especially by hand; expertise in an art.
2. An occupation or trade requiring such skill, or its members as a body; a guild.
3. Skill in deceiving; guile or cunning.
4. A boat, ship, aircraft or spacecraft (plural also craft).

Verb

1. To make by hand, or with great care and skill.

Word family

• crafter
• craftless
• aircraft
• campcraft
• craftsperson
• craftswoman
• craftwork
• handcraft

Related words

• crafty
• handicraft
• witchcraft
• crave

Usage notes

The AHD notes that craft has been a verb since Old English, used in Middle English of the artful construction of a text, and that crafted has lately had a vogue among reviewers for well-wrought writing.^[9] In Scots and northern dialect craft was also skill or special knowledge, as in star-craft.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)