craven

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cravant, later cravaunde,^[2][3][4] and its origin is disputed.^[4][5][6] Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from Old French cravanté (“overcome, vanquished”), the past participle of cravanter (“to crush, overwhelm”),^{[3][5][7][6][8][9]} perhaps through a clipped Anglo-Norman form,^[3][5][9] and the MED adds the influence of Middle English creaunt (“defeated”).^[2][7] The Anglo-Norman verb, recorded from 1155 in forms such as cravanter and craventer, meant to knock down, lay low or overthrow.^[10] It goes back to Vulgar Latin *crepantō, from Latin crepō (“to rattle, crack, burst”).^[3][7][6][5] The American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Collins and Klein instead derive it from crevant (“bursting”), the present participle of crever (“to burst”), from the same Latin verb.^{[11][12][13][14][15]} The OED calls the origin obscure: it notes that the lack of any final -é tells against the French past participle at a time when English still kept final e, and that taking the word as a variant of creaunt, much the commoner word in that sense, leaves the v to be explained, perhaps by association with crave.^[4] Weekley likewise thought it confused with creaunt, short for recreant.^[16] The ending was later made like that of past participles such as broken,^[3][5] a change of the 17th century.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Defeated, vanquished, or perhaps owning oneself beaten: about 1225, in the lives of St Katherine and St Margaret,^[2][4] where the defeated "icneowen ham crauant ant ouercumen".^[2] Barnhart dates it to probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[17] where the heart that gives in to the Devil cries "crauant, crauant", I surrender.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the word at first simply meant "defeated" and only gradually took on the pejorative sense "cowardly".^[6] According to Etymonline the shift, apparently helped by crave, came about 1400, perhaps through the sense "confessing oneself defeated".^[8] The first clear example is in the alliterative Morte Arthure, where a knight is mocked with "crauaunde knyghte! a cowarde þe semez!".^[2][4][17] The phrase to cry craven, to admit defeat, is recorded from before 1634 in Coke's Institutes until 1869,^[4] and is now archaic.^[5] The word was applied to a gamecock that would not fight, as an adjective from 1578, in Lyly's Euphues,^[4] and as a noun from 1611;^[4] Johnson (1755) put "a cock conquered and dispirited" first, and reported that Skinner had derived the word from the verb to crave, as of one who begs for his life.^[18] The noun, an acknowledged coward, dates from 1581,^[4] or the 1580s in Etymonline.^[8] Shakespeare used it as a verb, to make cowardly, in Cymbeline.^[4][5] In West Indian and Rastafarian slang craven means greedy, from the same verb.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – defeated, vanquished.^[2][4]
• c. 1400 – cowardly, in the Morte Arthure.^[4][2][17]
• 1578 – of a gamecock, unwilling to fight (obsolete by 1657).^[4]
• 1581 – noun, an acknowledged coward.^[4][8]
• 1611 – noun, a cock that will not fight.^[4]
• before 1616 – verb, to make cowardly, in Shakespeare's Cymbeline.^[4]
• before 1634 – to cry craven, to admit defeat.^[4]
• 1995 – in West Indian slang, greedy, gluttonous.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Contemptibly lacking in courage; cowardly or abjectly fainthearted: The council made a craven retreat as soon as the protests began.^[13][12][4]
2. (obsolete) Defeated, vanquished; in to cry craven (archaic), to admit defeat.^[4][5][12]

Noun

1. A coward.^[13][12][4]
2. (archaic) A gamecock that will not fight.^[12][4][5]

Verb

1. (archaic) To make cowardly.^[12][4][5]

Word family

• cravenly
• cravenness
• uncraven

Related words

• crave
• recreant
• crepitate
• decrepit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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 l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
15. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com