Etymologically
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crib

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Pronunciation

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

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