cram

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crammen, also crommen,^[2][3] inherited from Old English crammian (“to cram, stuff”),^[4][5][6][7] a derivative of the strong verb crimman (“to cram, insert”).^[5][3][8] The Old English verb is inherited from Proto-Germanic *krammōną (“to squeeze”), an o-grade iterative to *krimmaną,^[9][6] and is related to Old High German krimman (“to press, pinch”), Middle High German krammen (“to claw”), Old Norse kremja (“to squeeze, pinch”) and Swedish krama (“to squeeze, press”).^[5][3][6] The OED takes the original meaning as "to press, squeeze", and finds the 15th-century variant cremmyn to be from Norse.^[5] Further back, Etymonline traces it to an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to gather”),^[6][7] and Barnhart and Klein to Proto-Indo-European *grem- (“to press, squeeze”), the base also of Latin gremium (“bosom, lap”).^[3][8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, to stuff or fill: about 1000, in Ælfric's Grammar, glossing Latin farciō.^[4][5][3] In Middle English the verb is recorded before 1325 as crommen and about 1353 as crammen,^[3] meaning to fill something to capacity, or to thrust something into a container.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From filling a receptacle beyond what it conveniently holds, the verb came by about 1325 to mean overfeeding poultry to fatten them,^[5] and in the first half of the 15th century to forcing a thing or people into a space too small for them.^[5] Its figurative use for filling a person with facts or knowledge dates from 1581, in Mulcaster.^[5] The modern student sense, studying hastily for an examination, began as British university slang:^[6] Etymonline dates it to 1803, the OED to 1810 for the intransitive use and 1825 for preparing a pupil by filling his memory with information.^[6][5] In 1794 slang, to cram a person was to make him believe lies or exaggerations, as one "stuffs" him up;^[5][11][12] in 1842 a cram was a lie.^[5] The noun is first recorded in 1614 for a paste used to fatten fowls; it later meant a dense crowd or crush (1810) and hasty study for an examination (1828).^[5][10] Some dialects keep senses closer to the continental cognates: in Shetland cram meant to scratch with the fingernails, and in Lincolnshire, Devon and Cornwall to crumple or crease.^[5][13]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English crammian, to stuff, in Ælfric's Grammar.^[4][5][3]
• before 1325 – Middle English crommen, to fill, stuff.^[3][5]
• c. 1325 – to overfeed poultry to fatten them.^[5]
• before 1450 – to force a thing or people into too small a space.^[5]
• 1581 – figuratively, to fill a person with knowledge.^[5]
• 1614 – noun, a paste for fattening fowls.^[5]
• 1794 – slang, to make someone believe lies.^[5][11]
• 1810 – intransitive, to study hastily for an examination; noun, a dense crowd.^[5][10] Etymonline dates the study sense to 1803.^[6]
• 1825 – to prepare a pupil hastily for an examination.^[5]
• 1828 – noun, hasty study for an examination.^[5]
• 1842 – noun, slang, a lie.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill a space or container with more than it can comfortably hold; to pack or stuff: She crammed the drawer with old letters.^[10][14][5]
2. To force or squeeze people or things into a small space: Forty commuters crammed into the carriage.^[14][5]
3. To eat greedily, or to feed someone or something too much; to overfeed.^[14][10][5]
4. (informal) To study hard in a short time, especially just before an examination, or to prepare someone in this way.^[14][10][5]

Noun

1. The act or condition of cramming; a dense crowd or crush.^[14][10][5]
2. (informal) Hurried study for an examination.^[10][5]

Word family

• crammer
• crammingly
• cram-full
• cram school

Related words

• cramp
• crampon
• crumhorn
• crimp
• grapnel

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster also records a separate dialect noun cram, junk or anything in the way, from German Kram (“trifles, small wares, rubbish”) and the Scandinavian cognates.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins