kriki

Forms

kriki m (genitive krika)^[1]

Etymology

De Vries takes it as a formation from Old Norse kríkr (“bend, bay”), a noun with the same senses.^[2][3] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon relates it by ablaut to kreika (“to stagger”) and compares Norwegian krike (“hook, bend”) and Faroese kriki (“bird's neck”).^[4]

De Vries compares krókr (“hook”) and kraki (“pole with branches”), and assumes a wider link with the words for wattle fencing under the root Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, wind”).^[2] The UT lexicon puts it under the same root.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP has no article for the simple noun; its first dated record is in the compound handarkriki (“armpit”) in Morkinskinna, of 1275: Hann hafþi ꜹxi gullrecna i handar cricanom “He had a gold-inlaid axe in the crook of his arm”.^[6] Fritzner quotes the simple noun from a Norwegian charter, of a field boundary running nidhær af krikanom “down from the bend”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word meant a bend or nook, in the field names of Norwegian charters as much as in the compound for the armpit.^[7][2] Cleasby and Vigfússon call it frequent in modern use for a nook;^[1] in modern use Icelandic kriki also means the angle between a limb and the body, and a groin or thigh.^[4][8]

Middle English crike “inlet, cove, creek” comes from Old Norse according to the Middle English Dictionary,^[9] and de Vries, after Björkman, calls it a loan;^[2] Etymonline takes English creek probably from the Norse word, with Anglo-French influence.^[10]

Timeline

• early 13th century – Middle English kryk, in place names from the 12th century.^[10]
• 1275 – i handar cricanom “in the crook of his arm” in Morkinskinna.^[6]
• 1350 – i handar krika ser in a manuscript of Egils saga.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. a nook, bend, corner.^[7][1][2]
2. the angle between a limb and the body, as in handarkriki “armpit”.^[1][6]

Word family

• handarkriki

Descendants

• Icelandic kriki^[4]
• Middle English crike^[9]
• English creek^[10]

Related words

• kríkr
• krókr
• kreika

References

1. ^ a b c d Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 355
2. ^ a b c d e de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 330
3. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. kríkr
4. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. kriki
5. ^ Slocum, Jonathan, ed., Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, p. s.v. kriki
6. ^ a b c d Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. handarkriki
7. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. kriki
8. ^ Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 451
9. ^ a b 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), p. s.v. crike
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. creek