crudity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crudite,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French crudité, recorded from the 14th century, and directly borrowed from Latin crūditās (“indigestion”),^{[4][5][6][7][2]} from crūdus (“raw, uncooked, rough”),^[4][5] the source of crude, and the suffix -itās.^[7][3] The OED takes it as from Latin, or perhaps directly from French.^[5] The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kreuə- (“raw flesh”),^[8][4] and Klein relates it to cruor (“blood from a wound”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of food, the quality of producing unnatural humours in the body; also turbidity of urine: before 1425, in the Middle English Chauliac.^[2][4] The OED's first record, for imperfect digestion or indigestibility of food, is from Elyot's Castel of Helthe (1541),^[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1547.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word began in medicine, where it described food that was badly digested and the raw, unconcocted humours it was thought to produce;^[2][5][6] Johnson (1755) still defined it only as "indigestion; inconcoction".^[10] From the 1620s, in Bacon, it was also used of raw or unripe things in general, and by the 1630s of the state of being raw or unrefined.^[5][4] In the 17th century a crudity could also be a crude idea or piece of writing (before 1656),^[5] and in the late 19th century the word came to describe immature thought (1870) and blunt, unpolished expression (1885),^[5] close to the modern sense of a lack of refinement or subtlety.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1425 – of food, the quality of producing unnatural humours.^[2]
• 1541 – indigestion; imperfect digestion of food.^[5]
• 1626 – raw or unripe products or substances.^[5][4]
• 1638 – the state of being raw or unrefined.^[5][4]
• before 1656 – a crude idea, statement or piece of writing.^[5]
• 1870 – immaturity of thought.^[5]
• 1885 – bluntness of statement or expression.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state or quality of being crude; lack of polish, refinement or subtlety: the crudity of the early animation.^[7][5]
2. Something crude, such as a coarse remark or an unfinished piece of work: His speech was full of crudities.^[7][5]
3. (archaic) Indigestion, or undigested matter in the stomach.^[5][7][10]

Related words

• crude
• crudités
• raw

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ 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.