crest

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English creste,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French creste (“tuft, comb, summit”),^[4][5][6][7] modern crête,^[6][5][7] from Latin crista (“tuft, plume; cock's comb”).^{[6][5][3][4][8]} The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1271–72, already for the crest of a helmet.^[9] Old Occitan cresta, Spanish cresta and Italian cresta have the same source.^[6] Latin crista is probably related to crīnis (“hair”)^{[4][10][5][8]} and crispus (“curly”).^[5][8] Barnhart and Klein connect it with Old Norse hrista (“to shake”), Middle Irish cressaim (“I shake”), Old High German hrīs (“twig, brushwood”) and Old Prussian craysi (“stalk”), from Proto-Indo-European *kreis- (“to shake, swing”);^[4][8] Klein takes this as an enlargement of a root meaning "to bend, turn", and Watkins, cited by Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary, derives the word from an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to turn, bend”).^[8][5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart dates the noun to about 1312;^[4] the OED's first record, about 1325 in Coer de Lyon, is for the top of a helmet, and hence a helmet,^[6] which Etymonline also gives as the first English sense.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Ayto thinks the original meaning was "tuft of hair", and that the sense of a ridge on top of something is secondary.^[10] In English the comb or tuft on a bird's or animal's head is recorded in Trevisa (1387), who also used the word for the tail of a comet,^[6][2][5] and the plume or ornament on a helmet from about 1380.^[6] By about 1400 the device was transferred to heraldry, as the figure borne above the shield in a coat of arms.^[6][11] The summit of anything appears in the Wycliffite Bible (1382) and the summit of a hill about 1400;^[6][5] the ridge of a roof or wall in architecture follows in Lydgate (1430),^[6] and the ridge of a horse's neck in the 16th century.^[7][12] From 1531, in Tyndale, phrases such as to let fall one's crest made the crest a sign of pride or spirit;^[6] crestfallen (1589) comes from a bird with a drooping crest, and Weekley traced it to cock-fighting.^[4][13][12] The verb, first "to provide with a crest", is dated about 1380 by Barnhart,^[4] late in the 14th century by Etymonline, from crester,^[5] and about 1440 by the OED.^[6] Its senses "to reach the top of" (1832 in Etymonline, 1851 in the OED) and, of waves, "to rise into a crest" (1850) are 19th-century;^[5][6] of a river, to reach its highest level, it is current American usage.^[11] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins and Ayto suggest that crease began as a variant of crest.^[13][10]

Timeline

• c. 1312 – first record of the noun.^[4]
• c. 1325 – the top of a helmet; a helmet.^[6][5]
• c. 1380 – a plume or ornament fixed on a helmet.^[6]
• 1382 – the head or top of anything.^[6]
• 1387 – the comb or tuft on an animal's head; the tail of a comet.^[6][2]
• before 1400 – heraldry, the device above the shield; the summit of a hill.^[6]
• 1430 – architecture, the ornamental finish of a roof ridge or wall.^[6]
• 1531 – figurative phrases of pride, erect one's crest.^[6]
• 1589 – crestfallen.^[4]
• 1596 – verb, to mark with long streaks, in Spenser.^[6]
• 1713 – intransitive, to bear oneself proudly (now dialect).^[6]
• 1832 – verb, to reach the top of.^[5]
• 1849 – the ridge line of a mountain.^[6]
• 1850 – of waves, to rise into a crest.^[6][5]
• 1929 – archery, the coloured bands on an arrow.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tuft of feathers, fur or skin on the head of a bird or other animal, such as a cock's comb.^[14][11][6]
2. A plume or other ornament worn on top of a helmet.^[14][11][6]
3. (heraldry) A device placed above the shield in a coat of arms, also used alone as an emblem of a family or institution: The school crest was sewn on every blazer.^[14][11][6]
4. The top or highest point of something, especially of a hill or a wave: the crest of the ridge.^[14][6]
5. The ridge of the neck of a horse, dog or other animal, or the mane growing on it.^[14][7]
6. The highest stage of something, such as a flood.^[14][11]

Verb

1. To reach the top of a hill, wave or the like: The riders crested the pass at dawn.^[11][6]
2. To rise into a crest, as waves do; of a river, to reach its highest level.^[11][6]
3. To provide with a crest, or to serve as a crest for; to top or crown.^[11][6]
4. (obsolete) To carry oneself proudly.^[11][6]

Word family

• crestal
• crestless
• crested
• crestfallen
• hillcrest
• undercrest
• crest cloud

Related words

• crinite
• crinoline
• crisp
• crease

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins