shrink

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shrinken, also schrinken,^[2][3] inherited from Old English scrincan (“to contract, shrivel, wither”), a strong verb with the past tense scranc and the past participle scruncen,^[2][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną.^[2][3] It is cognate with Middle Dutch schrinken (“to draw back”),^[4][3][6] Old Swedish skrunkin (“shrunken, wrinkled”),^[4][3][7] Swedish skrynka (“to wrinkle”)^[4][2][7] and Norwegian skrekka or skrøkka.^[4][7] Etymonline traces it, probably, to Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to turn, bend”),^[2][8] and Merriam-Webster compares Latin curvus (“curved”).^[6] Holthausen lists Norwegian forms meaning a wrinkle and a wrinkled old woman among the cognates.^[9] It had a causative counterpart, the obsolete verb shrench, formed like drench beside drink.^[2][4][10] The informal noun meaning a psychiatrist is short for headshrinker.^[2][11][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, to wither or shrivel, especially of a plant, and to pine away or grow weak, of a living being;^[5][4] Barnhart's first example is in King Alfred's translation of Orosius, before 899.^[3] The OED's earliest quotation for withering is from the Old English Leechdoms, and Ælfric uses it of drawing the limbs together or cowering.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the original sense of withering, the verb came to mean becoming smaller in size, recorded from the late 13th century,^[2][4] and in 1483 an Act of Parliament used it of cloth contracting when it was wetted.^[4] The sense "draw back, recoil" appears in the early 14th century, often of snails pulling into their shells,^[2] and by the mid-14th century it meant to flinch from fear or shame;^[2] Weekley thought the figurative senses might allude to the snail.^[10] The transitive sense, to make something smaller, followed in the late 14th century.^[2][12] From the 14th century the plural past form was used with a singular subject, and shrunk became frequent in the 15th century and was the normal past tense in the 18th.^[4] The noun, at first a wrinkle in the mid-15th century,^[2][7] meant an act of shrinking from 1590.^[4][6] Johnson (1755) defined it as "corrugation; contraction into less compass".^[13] In 20th-century American slang a shrink was a psychiatrist, from head-shrinker: Green's dictionary finds shrinker in 1960,^[14] and the OED's first shrink is in Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 (1966).^[4][2] In Devon dialect the shrinking of the moon was its waning, and in Somerset shrink meant to come to an end.^[15]

Timeline

• before 899 – Old English scrincan, to wither, shrivel.^[3][5]
• c. 1275 – to become smaller in size.^[4][2]
• early 14th century – to draw back, recoil.^[2]
• late 14th century – transitive, to make smaller.^[2][12]
• 1483 – of cloth, to contract when wetted.^[4]
• mid-15th century – noun, a wrinkle.^[2][7]
• 1590 – noun, an act of shrinking or flinching.^[4][6]
• 1882 – shrinking violet, a shy person.^[2]
• 1947 – noun, the shrinkage of a fibre or fabric.^[4]
• 1961 – shrink-wrap.^[2]
• 1966 – noun, a psychiatrist.^[4][2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To become smaller in size or amount, especially of cloth after washing or exposure to heat: My wool jumper shrank in the dryer.
2. To make something smaller.
3. To draw back or recoil, as from fear or disgust.
4. To be reluctant to do something: He never shrank from hard decisions.

Noun

1. An act of shrinking; shrinkage.
2. (slang) A psychiatrist or psychotherapist.

Word family

• shrinkable
• shrinker
• shrinkingly
• overshrink
• preshrink
• nonshrinkable
• nonshrinking
• shrink-wrap

Related words

• shrivel
• shrunken
• headshrinker
• shrench

References

1. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ 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)