Etymologically
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crease

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kɹiːs/[1]
  • US: /kɹis/[1]

Etymology

It is probably from Middle English creste (“crest, ridge”), that is, the word crest, altered through the variant creaste.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Crest comes from Old French creste, from Latin crista (“tuft, plume”).[4][5] The idea is that the ridge raised in cloth by a fold was seen as a crest.[9][4][10] Hoad explains the loss of the final consonant by the influence of the verb, often spelled with a double s in the 16th and 17th centuries,[10] and Ayto suggests that the form ending in -t was mistaken for the past form of a verb.[9] The OED, however, calls the word of unknown origin: it finds spellings with -t in the 16th and 17th centuries but thinks it may be only a confusion with crest, and cannot tell whether the noun or the verb came first.[11] Johnson reported Skinner's derivation from Latin crēta (“chalk”).[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A line or mark left by folding; a fold, wrinkle or ridge: 1578, in Henry Lyte's translation of Dodoens's Niewe Herball,[11] the same year as Merriam-Webster's first date.[6] Barnhart finds Middle English creste for a fold in a length of cloth in 1433, and for a bony ridge before 1398;[3] it dates the modern noun crease to 1665,[2][3] and Etymonline to the 1660s.[4]

Semantic evolution

The verb, to make creases in, appears in 1588, first as the past participle cressed, which Barnhart takes as perhaps an altered crested.[11][3][6] In cricket the lines marked on the ground for the bowler and the batter were called creases from 1752, originally cut into the turf;[11][4] the ice hockey and lacrosse sense, the marked area in front of the goal, followed in 1897.[11] Architects used crease for a ridge tile from 1703, which the OED takes as an error for crest;[11] in the dialects of Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall a crease was a ridge tile, and in Kent the ridge of a furrow.[13] In America from 1807 to crease a wild horse was to stun it with a shot through the ridge of the neck;[11][14][6] this hunters' use gave slang crease, to wound slightly with a bullet (1897), and to kill (1900).[15][6] British colloquial crease up, to double up with laughter, is recorded from 1922.[11]

Timeline

  • before 1398 – creste, a bony ridge.[3]
  • 1433 – creste, a fold in a length of cloth.[3][4]
  • 1578 – a line or mark made by folding; a wrinkle.[11][6]
  • 1588 – verb, to make creases in.[11][6][3]
  • 1703 – a ridge tile.[11]
  • 1752 – in cricket, a line marking the position of the bowler or batter.[11] Etymonline dates the cricket sense to 1779.[4]
  • 1807 – to stun a horse by a shot in the ridge of the neck.[11]
  • 1876 – to become creased.[11]
  • 1897 – the area in front of the goal in ice hockey and lacrosse.[11] Slang, to graze with a bullet.[15]
  • 1922 – crease up, to be helpless with laughter (British).[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A line or ridge made by folding, pressing or crushing something soft: She ironed a sharp crease into each sleeve.[16][6][11]
  2. A wrinkle or furrow in the skin, especially on the face.[16][6]
  3. (cricket) Any of the lines marked near each wicket to show where the bowler and the batter stand.[16][11]
  4. (ice hockey, lacrosse) The marked area in front of the goal.[16][11]

Verb

  1. To make a crease or creases in; to wrinkle: Sitting for hours had creased his jacket.[16][6][11]
  2. To become creased.[16][11]
  3. To graze or wound slightly with a bullet; formerly, to stun an animal with such a shot.[6][11][15]
  4. (British, informal) crease up: to laugh helplessly, or make someone do so.[11][16]

Word family

  • creaseless
  • creaseproof
  • creaser
  • creasy
  • precrease

Usage notes

Crease (also creese) is also an old spelling of kris, the Malay dagger, which has a separate source.[17][14][18]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  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 Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  18. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House