crumb

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crume, also crumme and crome,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English cruma (“crumb, fragment”),^{[6][2][7][8][9]} from Proto-Germanic *krumô.^[1] Köbler gives the Germanic noun as *krumōn.^[10] It is related to Middle Dutch crūme, Dutch kruim, Middle Low German krōme, Middle High German krūme and German Krume,^[6][3][11] forms which, as the OED notes, have a long vowel,^[6] and to Danish krumme^[4][12] and Icelandic krumur (“soft inside”).^[13] The OED calls its further origin obscure, and Etymonline traces it to a West Germanic root of obscure origin.^[6][2] Etymonline, Barnhart and Klein compare Ancient Greek γρῡμέα (grūméa, “bag or chest for old clothes; trash”)^[2][14][4] and Albanian grime (“crumb”),^{[2][14][13][8]} and Barnhart, Klein and Merriam-Webster add Latin grūmus (“little heap, mound of earth”);^[14][4][13] Barnhart derives the group from Proto-Indo-European *grūm- (“what is scratched together”),^[14] Klein from *greu- (“to scrape together”).^[4] Merriam-Webster also compares Old High German krouwōn (“to scratch”) and takes the basic meaning to be "something scratched".^[13] The silent b was added in the 16th century, according to the OED, which says that the spelling without it remained usual until the end of the 18th century;^[6][15] Barnhart and Etymonline date the first b spellings to the mid-15th century.^[3][2] The OED thinks the b appeared first in crumble, after French words such as humble, helped by the spelling of dumb and thumb.^[6][16][17] The verb, crummen, is from the noun,^[13] and Hoad says that it replaced an older verb from Old English ġecrymman.^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small particle of bread: Old English, in the Rushworth Gospels (Matthew 15:27, the dogs eating the crumbs from their masters' table).^[6][7] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 975 and the Middle English crume to about 1150.^[3][14]

Semantic evolution

From a crumb of bread the word spread before 1387 to a small particle of anything, a grain of dust, a sense now only dialectal,^[6] and by about 1535 to a small portion of something immaterial, a scrap.^[6] From about 1430 it also meant the soft inner part of a loaf as opposed to the crust;^[6] Johnson (1755) gave this as the first sense, before "a small particle or fragment of bread".^[19] Later uses were transferred to crumbled earth (1807) and, in soil science, to the porous aggregates of a soil with a crumb structure (1906).^[6] In American slang a crumb was a body louse from 1863, so called from the resemblance; from 1918 it also meant a lousy or worthless person;^[6][2] in British slang it meant plumpness from 1843.^[6][20] Tramps in the American Northwest used crumb for a hobo's roll of bedding (1913).^[20]

Timeline

• Old English – a small particle of bread.^[6][7]
• c. 1150 – Middle English crume.^[3][14]
• before 1387 – a small particle of anything; a grain of dust.^[6]
• c. 1430 – the soft inner part of bread.^[6]
• before 1535 – a small portion of something immaterial, a scrap.^[6]
• 1807 – loosened, crumbled earth.^[6]
• 1843 – slang, plumpness.^[6]
• 1863 – US slang, a body louse.^[6][2]
• 1906 – a porous aggregate of soil particles.^[6]
• 1918 – slang, a lousy or contemptible person.^[6][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small fragment of bread, cake or other food: She brushed the crumbs off her lap.^[21][13][6]
2. A very small amount or piece of something: not a crumb of hope.^[21][13][6]
3. The soft inner part of a loaf, as opposed to the crust.^[21][13][6]
4. Loose, crumbly soil, or one of the porous lumps of particles in such soil.^[13][6]
5. (slang) A contemptible or worthless person.^[21][13][6]
6. (US slang) A body louse.^[13][6]

Verb

1. To break into crumbs.^[13][21]
2. To coat or thicken with crumbs, especially breadcrumbs: crumb the fish fillets before frying.^[13][21]
3. To clear of crumbs: The waiter crumbed the tablecloth between courses.^[13]

Word family

• crumbable
• crumber
• decrumb
• breadcrumb
• crumble
• crumby
• crummy

Related words

• crumple
• grume

Usage notes

The dated exclamation crumbs! is a euphemism for Christ, from the late 19th century.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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 z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
19. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
20. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
21. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins