shriek

Etymology

It is a 16th-century variant, probably of screak,^[2][3] and the verb is inherited from Middle English skriken, also shriken.^[4][5][6] Several dictionaries take the Middle English verb as borrowed from Old Norse skrækja (“to screech”),^[4][7][5][3] itself probably imitative.^[4] The Middle English Dictionary thinks it imitative, perhaps from both Old English and Old Norse,^[6] and the Gersum Project is cautious too: Norse input is often claimed for spellings with an unpalatalized /sk/, but others show the palatalized sound, which may point to a native source or to analogy.^[8] Native origin is the choice of Hoad, who relates the forms shrike and shritch to the base of Old English scriccettan,^[9] and Dictionary.com, which takes the word as a northern variant of the same dialect verb, schrichen, a back-formation from the Old English verb.^[10] The Oxford Dictionary of English, Weekley and Skeat simply call it imitative.^[11][12][13] The Germanic form is given as Proto-Germanic *skrīkijaną in Wiktionary^[1] and as *skrīkjan- in Gersum;^[8] Wiktionary compares Swedish skrika, Danish skrige and Icelandic skríkja.^[1] The noun is formed from the verb.^[2][3][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shriek with pain, fear or grief, as Middle English shrikeð, of a woman in labour: before 1200, in the Trinity Homilies.^[6] Etymonline dates skriken to about 1200.^[4] The form shrick is first recorded in 1567, of the cry of certain animals, in J. Maplet's Greene Forest,^[2][3] and shreke in 1577, of a person.^[2][3] The Shorter Oxford and Oxford Dictionary of English put the verb in the late 15th century,^[14][11] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged in the 15th century.^[15]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English verb already covered pain and fear, anger, a crying baby and the screech of an owl, and even a songbird singing loudly.^[6] The modern form spread from living creatures to inanimate things in 1596, in Spenser,^[2] and to words uttered with a shriek in 1593, in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis.^[2][4] The noun followed in 1590, in Spenser's Faerie Queene, for a piercing cry of terror or pain,^[2][3] and Johnson (1755) defined it as an inarticulate cry of anguish or horror.^[16] The noun was applied to the sound of a musical instrument from 1599, and also to the whistle of a locomotive.^[2] The 19th century used it figuratively for a hysterical outcry (about 1853) and, in colloquial English, for an exclamation mark (1864).^[2][14] Colloquial 20th-century uses include a very funny person or thing, recorded by Green's Dictionary of Slang from 1919,^[17] and the verb for "to show something blatantly", from 1920.^[2] In English dialects the verb had the forms schrich in Shropshire and shrike in Lakeland and Yorkshire.^[18]

Timeline

• before 1200 – Middle English shrikeð, to shriek with pain.^[6]
• c. 1400 – Middle English noun shryke, a scream of pain.^[6]
• 1567 – shrick, of an animal's cry.^[2][3]
• 1577 – shreke, of a person in pain or terror.^[2][3]
• 1590 – noun, a piercing cry of terror or pain.^[2][3]
• 1593 – transitive, to utter words with a shriek.^[2][4]
• 1596 – of inanimate things.^[2]
• 1599 – noun, a high-pitched sound from an instrument.^[2]
• 1642 – to bring oneself into a certain condition by shrieking.^[2]
• c. 1853 – noun, figuratively, a hysterical outcry.^[2]
• 1864 – noun, an exclamation mark.^[2]
• 1919 – noun, a very funny person or thing.^[17]
• 1920 – verb, figuratively, to show something blatantly.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a loud, sharp, shrill cry, as from terror or pain or in laughter; to screech: The children shrieked with delight on the roller coaster.^[7][15][2]
2. To say something in a shrill, piercing voice: "Get out!" she shrieked.^[7][2][14]
3. Of an animal or a thing: to give out a sound like a shriek: The brakes shrieked as the train slowed.^[15][2]
4. (figurative) To show something clearly or blatantly.^[2][14]

Noun

1. A shrill, piercing cry, often wild or involuntary, of terror, pain or laughter: a shriek of laughter.^[7][15][2]
2. A sound like this: the shriek of a whistle.^[15][2][14]
3. (colloquial) A very funny person or thing.^[2][17]
4. (colloquial) An exclamation mark.^[2][14]

Word family

• shrieker
• shriekingly
• shrieky
• outshriek

Related words

• screech
• screak
• shrike
• shritch
• skrike

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary's distinction: a shriek is sharper and more sudden than a scream, and shows more terror or distress when it comes from fear or pain, while screech stresses how disagreeable the sound is.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f 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)
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)