cringe

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crengen, also crenchen,^[2][3][4] apparently inherited from Old English *crengan, an unrecorded causative verb,^[3][5][2] from the same base as cringan (“to fall in battle, give way, perish”), also crincan.^[3][6][7][8] Wiktionary reconstructs the causative as Proto-Germanic *krangijaną (“to cause to fall or turn”) and the strong verb as *kringaną,^[9] which Kroonen gives as the source of *kringa- (“circle”).^[10] Related words are Old Norse kringr (“circle”), Dutch kring and German Kring,^[11][12][10] krengen (“to heel over”),^[7][13] Old Norse krangr (“weak, frail”) and krank (“sick”),^[7][14] and crank and crinkle.^[8][12][15] If this etymology is right, the verb was first transitive, "to cause to cringe".^[3] The modern i probably comes from the raising of e before n and another consonant;^[3] until the 16th century the word was usually spelled crenge or crench.^[8] Johnson derived it from German kriechen.^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

To draw oneself into a bent shape, often haughtily: about 1225, in the legend of St Margaret, where the dragon bigon to crahien & crenge wið swire, arching its neck.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, to contract the body or cower, has been used since the early 13th century.^[3] A transitive sense, to draw in or contort a part of the body, is recorded from 1594 to 1678;^[3] Johnson (1755) still defined the verb as "to draw together; to contract", quoting Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.^[16][17] From about 1604 it meant to bow in a servile way.^[3] From about 1660 it was also used figuratively, to behave obsequiously.^[3] Etymonline dates "to crouch with servility or fear" to the 1570s.^[11] The modern sense of wincing inwardly with embarrassment or disgust is recorded from 1868.^[3] The noun, a servile bow, followed in 1592,^[3][18] and in colloquial use from 1984 it meant acute embarrassment or something causing it;^[3] cringe-worthy is recorded by 1990,^[11] and cringe as an adjective, embarrassing, from 2001.^[3] In Australia the cultural cringe is a deference to the cultural standards of other countries.^[19][18] In Scots and Yorkshire dialect it meant to tremble for one's own or another's safety, and in East Anglia to crinkle or shrivel.^[17] In American drug slang cringe was a name for methamphetamine.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – to bend, arch the neck; to shrink into a bent position.^[2][3]
• 1592 – noun, a servile bow.^[3][18]
• 1594 – transitive, to contort (obsolete by 1678).^[3]
• c. 1604 – to bow servilely.^[3]
• c. 1660 – figurative, to behave obsequiously.^[3]
• 1868 – to wince inwardly with embarrassment or disgust.^[3]
• 1984 – noun, acute embarrassment.^[3]
• 1990 – cringe-worthy.^[11]
• 2001 – adjective, embarrassing.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shrink back or flinch, especially in fear: The puppy cringed at the sound of thunder.^[19][18][3]
2. To behave in a servile or fawning way; to bow obsequiously.^[19][18][3]
3. To wince inwardly with embarrassment or distaste: I still cringe when I hear that recording.^[19][3]

Noun

1. An act of cringing, especially a servile bow; servility.^[18][19][3]
2. (informal) Acute embarrassment, or something that causes it.^[3]

Adjective

1. (informal) Embarrassing; making one cringe.^[3]

Word family

• cringer
• cringingly
• cringingness

Related words

• crank
• crinkle
• cringle
• cradle

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b 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)
18. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
19. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com