Etymologically
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crude

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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
  • 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