Etymologically
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crap

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kræp/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crappe (“chaff, grain trodden underfoot”),[2][3] borrowed from Middle French crape (“siftings”), from Old French crappe,[2][4] from Medieval Latin crappa (“chaff”).[2][4][5] Barnhart suggests that the Latin word is from Old Dutch krappen “to cut off, pluck”;[4] the SOED and Word Origins compare Dutch krappe, from krappen “to pluck off”,[3][5] and MWU derives the word from Middle Dutch crappe “pork chop, greaves, grain in chaff”, from crappen “to tear off”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Chaff, the husk of grain: before 1425 in Barnhart, about 1440 in the OED.[4][7] Weeds growing among corn are about 1425.[7]

Semantic evolution

The older nouns all named things cast off: weeds, the residue from rendering fat (1490s), money in 18th-century slang, and the dregs of beer.[2][7] The verb “to defecate” is from 1846,[2][4] and the noun “excrement” and the sense “rubbish, nonsense” are both from 1898; they share the idea of rejected matter.[2][7][5] The verb “to talk nonsense” is from 1930.[4] Crappy is from 1846.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1425 – chaff.[4]
  • 1490s – residue from rendering fat.[7]
  • 1846 – to defecate.[2]
  • 1898 – excrement; rubbish, nonsense.[7]
  • 1930 – to talk nonsense.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (vulgar) excrement, or an act of defecating.
  2. (slang) Nonsense, or something of poor quality; rubbish.

Verb

  1. (vulgar) To defecate.

Adjective

  1. (slang) Of very poor quality.

Word family

  • crapola
  • crappy
  • crapper
  • crapshoot
  • crapshooter
  • craps

Usage notes

Crap, a losing throw in the dice game craps, is a back-formation from craps, from 1885 in MWU.[8][6] Crap, the gallows, and crap, to hang, were thieves' slang of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, from Dutch krap “clamp”.[3][7]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins