Etymologically
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crisp

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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