crib

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crib, also cribbe, crebe and crubbe,^[2] inherited from Old English cribb (“manger”),^{[3][4][5][6][7]} a common West Germanic noun:^[3] compare Old Frisian cribbe, Old Saxon kribbia, Middle Dutch cribbe, Dutch krib, Old High German krippa and German Krippe.^[3][4][5][6] Old English also had the variant crybb, matching Middle Low German krübbe, and Old Norse had krubba.^[8][9][10] Köbler reconstructs Proto-Germanic *kribjō- (“crib, wickerwork”).^[9] It is usually linked with Middle High German krebe (“basket”),^{[3][4][6][11]} which the OED thinks may stand in ablaut to German Korb (“basket”).^[3] Barnhart and Köbler connect it further with Proto-Indo-European *grebh- or *gerbh-, "bundle" (Pokorny 386), and Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Old Norse kjarf (“bundle”), and a Sanskrit word for a bunch.^[5][9][12] The Old High German word was borrowed into Vulgar Latin as *creppia, the source of French crèche.^[13][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A manger, a rack for fodder in a cowshed or a field: in the Old English poem Christ III,^[3] before 1000 in Barnhart.^[5] About 1175 the Ormulum tells how Mary laid the child Jesus inn an cribbe.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The manger sense led to the stall of an ox (before 1340, in Rolle's Psalter),^[3][2] and in Middle English a crib was also a beehive.^[2] A wickerwork basket or pannier was a crib from the 15th to the 19th century,^[14][8] and Ayto, Etymonline and the OED see in this basket the origin of the thieves' slang verb "to steal".^[13][4][3] From about 1600 a small or humble dwelling was a crib, as in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2;^[3][15] in thieves' slang it became a house or shop to be robbed (1819),^[3] later a saloon or brothel in American slang,^[3] and in modern American slang simply one's home, which Etymonline thinks is probably an independent use.^[4][15] In New Zealand a crib is a small holiday house.^[3][11] The child's bed with barred sides is recorded from 1649,^[3][5][4] probably through the manger in which the infant Jesus was laid;^[4] the crib of a Christmas nativity scene is recorded from 1885, first in Roman Catholic use.^[3] The verb meant "to feed at a crib" in the Towneley Plays (about 1460),^[2][3] and "to confine as in a small space" in Macbeth (1605): cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd.^[5][3][12] The sense "to steal" is recorded from 1735 in the OED, 1748 in Barnhart and Etymonline,^[3][5][4] and in student slang it moved to copying another's work, to plagiarising, from 1778;^[3][5][15] the noun followed, a literal translation used by students (1827 in Etymonline),^[4][15] and a plagiarism (1834).^[4] In Cornwall, and now chiefly in Australia and New Zealand, crib is food or a snack taken at work.^[16][14][15] Partridge and Weekley derive the card game cribbage from the crib, the dealer's store of discarded cards.^[17][18]

Timeline

• before 1000 – a manger or fodder rack, in Christ III.^[3][5]
• c. 1175 – the manger of the infant Jesus, in the Ormulum.^[2]
• before 1340 – the stall of an ox.^[3]
• c. 1460 – verb, to feed at a crib.^[2][3]
• 1556 – the star cluster Praesepe in Cancer.^[3]
• 1600 – a small dwelling, a hovel.^[3]
• 1605 – verb, to confine in a narrow space.^[5][12]
• 1649 – a child's bed with barred sides.^[3][5]
• 1735 – verb, to steal, pilfer.^[3]
• 1778 – verb, to copy without acknowledgement.^[3][5]
• 1819 – thieves' slang, a house or shop.^[3]
• 1827 – a literal translation used by students.^[4]
• 1885 – a model of the manger scene at Christmas.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A child's bed with high barred or slatted sides; a cot.^[11][12][3]
2. A manger or rack for fodder; also a stall or pen for cattle.^[11][12][3]
3. A model of the manger scene of the nativity of Jesus, set up at Christmas.^[11][3]
4. A bin or building for storing grain, especially maize: a corn crib.^[11][14]
5. A framework of timber or bars used for support or strengthening.^[12][14]
6. A small, cramped house or room; in US informal use, one's home, and in New Zealand a small holiday cottage.^[11][3]
7. (informal) A literal translation or a set of notes used, often unfairly, by students; a crib sheet.^[11][3][15]
8. (informal) Something copied from another's work; a plagiarism.^[11][4]
9. (Australia and New Zealand) A light meal or snack, especially one taken at work.^[14][15]
10. In cribbage, the cards discarded by the players, which score for the dealer.^[18][10]

Verb

1. (informal) To copy another's work dishonestly; to cheat or plagiarize: He cribbed the answers from his neighbour.^[12][3][14]
2. (informal) To pilfer or steal.^[12][3][14]
3. To confine in a small space; to cramp.^[12][3][14]
4. To line or support with a framework of timber.^[12][3]
5. (US) To store grain in a crib.^[12][3]
6. Of a horse, to bite the manger as a habit.^[3][14]

Word family

• cribber
• crib-biting
• uncrib
• cribwork
• crib sheet
• crib death

Related words

• crèche
• cribbage
• cradle
• cratch

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
18. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray