crisp

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crisp, also crips,^[2][3] inherited from Old English crisp (“curly”), also cyrps,^[4][5][6][7] borrowed from Latin crispus (“curled, wrinkled”).^{[4][8][9][10][11][12]} Barnhart and MW give as cognates Welsh crych (“curly”), Middle High German rispen (“to curl”) and Old High German hrispahi (“bush, thicket”),^[3][2] and Klein relates the Latin word to crīnis (“hair”) and crista (“crest”).^[13] Etymonline derives it from Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to turn, bend”).^[8][9] The Latin adjective is also the source of French crêpe and of English crape and crepe.^[11][4] The OED notes that Old French crespe (“curled”) does not seem to have affected the English form.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of hair, curly: in the Old English translation of Bede, in the phrase crispe loccas, curly locks;^[4][5] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 900.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word spread from curly hair to any surface curled into small waves or wrinkles (1398),^[4] and Johnson (1755) still gave "curled" as the first sense.^[14] The modern sense "brittle but firm" appears in 1530, in Palsgrave,^[4][3] and its origin is unclear.^[4][8][11] The OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English suspect the influence of the word's sound,^[4][15] Barnhart suggests imitation of the noise of burning sticks or brittle food,^[3] and Etymonline what happens to flat things when they are cooked.^[8] From crisp snow and frost the word passed to frosty and then bracing air (1869),^[4][8] and figuratively to a short, sharp manner and to a clean, neat look (1814).^[4][3][8] The noun first named a fine crinkled fabric for veils (1397) and a pastry fried in batter (about 1390);^[4][8] burnt to a crisp dates from the 19th century,^[4][8] and the potato crisp from 1929 in the OED,^[4] or by 1897 according to Etymonline.^[8] The verb, to curl or crimp, is recorded from about 1340, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and "to make or become brittle" from 1805.^[4][3][8]

Timeline

• c. 900 – Old English crisp, curly.^[3][4]
• c. 1340 – verb, to curl or crimp.^[4]
• c. 1390 – noun, a crisp pastry fried in batter (obsolete).^[4]
• 1397 – noun, a fine crinkled fabric for veils (obsolete).^[4]
• 1398 – having a surface curled into small waves or wrinkles.^[4]
• 1530 – brittle but firm.^[4][3]
• 1805 – verb, to become crisp.^[4][3]
• 1814 – of manner, short and decided; clean and neat.^[4][8]
• 1869 – of air or weather, frosty, bracing.^[4][8]
• 1929 – potato crisp.^[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Firm and brittle, breaking easily with a cracking sound: crisp toast.
2. Fresh and firm, not limp: a crisp apple.
3. Of air or weather, cool, dry and bracing.
4. Clean and neat; clearly defined: a crisp linen shirt.
5. Short, quick and to the point; terse: a crisp answer.
6. Of hair, curly or wavy.

Noun

1. (chiefly British) A thin slice of potato fried until crisp and eaten cold; a potato chip.
2. A baked dessert of fruit with a crumbly topping.
3. Something crisp, as in burnt to a crisp.

Verb

1. To make or become crisp: He crisped the bacon in a hot pan.
2. To curl or crimp.

Word family

• crisply
• crispness
• crispbread
• crispen
• crisphead
• crispy
• crisped
• crisper

Related words

• crispate
• crispation
• crape
• crepe
• crest

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press