crude

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kruːd/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin crūdus (“raw, rough, bloody”),^[2][3][4] from a suffixed form of an Indo-European root meaning raw flesh, also the source of raw.^[3][4][5] cruel comes from the same Latin root.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the natural or raw state, not changed by any process: about 1386 in the OED, about 1395 in Barnhart, in Chaucer.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

Of food in the stomach, undigested (1533), and of fruit, unripe (1555), are early senses now gone or archaic.^[7][4] Rough, lacking finish or skill, belongs to the 17th century,^[4] and lacking grace or refinement is first recorded in 1650, the 1640s in Etymonline.^[2][3] Crude oil, natural mineral oil, is from 1865,^[7][3] and the noun crude for it from about 1904.^[5] Crudity is probably from before 1325.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – raw, unrefined.^[7]
• 1533 – undigested.^[7]
• 1555 – unripe.^[7]
• 1650 – lacking refinement.^[2]
• 1865 – crude oil.^[7][3]
• c. 1904 – crude (noun).^[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. In a natural or unrefined state; raw.
2. Lacking tact, taste or refinement; vulgar: a crude joke.
3. Roughly or simply made; lacking skill: a crude sketch.
4. Of statistics, not analysed or adjusted.

Noun

1. Petroleum or another substance in its unrefined state.

Word family

• crudely
• crudeness
• uncrude
• crude oil

Related words

• crudity
• cruel
• cruelty
• raw
• crudités
• recrudescence

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press