Etymologically
Log in

creek

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 03:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kriːk/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English creke, altered from earlier kryk or crike (1220–30, and in place names from the 12th century),[2][3] probably borrowed from Old Norse kriki (“corner, nook”),[3][4][5][6] perhaps reinforced by Anglo-French crique, itself from Norse through the Normans.[3][2][5] The long vowel may come from kreke (Dutch kreek “creek, bay”).[2][5][7] Barnhart and Etymonline compare Swedish dialect krik “corner, bend, cove”, and relate it to crook, with an original notion of bending.[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A narrow inlet in a coastline or in the tidal estuary of a river: about 1250 in the OED; the form creke is from 1449.[8][2]

Semantic evolution

An inlet or short arm of a river is from the 1570s (1557 in Barnhart).[3][2] From this came the American use for a small stream or brook, recorded in 1622,[2][8] and creek for a branch of a main river in Canada, Australia and New Zealand too;[8][3] Etymonline suggests that explorers moving up main rivers took the mouths of tributaries for inlets.[3] In the United States it is often pronounced crick.[3][9] Up the creek, in trouble, is attested by 1941, perhaps a cleaned-up form of up shit creek.[3][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – a coastal inlet.[8]
  • 1449 – creke.[2]
  • 1577 – an arm of a river.[8]
  • 1622 – a small stream (American).[8][2]
  • by 1941 – up the creek.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A small stream or tributary.
  2. (chiefly British) A narrow inlet in a coastline or river bank.
  3. A channel through a salt marsh.
  • crook
  • crick

Usage notes

The Creek, a Native American confederacy of the southeastern United States, were named in English from the creek, the geographical feature, in 1725;[3][4] the name is short for Ochese Creek Indians, from the place in Georgia where the English met them.[3] An old Scots creek, dawn, as in creek of day, is a different word, related to Dutch krieken “to break, of daylight”.[9][10]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ 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)