creek English · revision 5754

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1250|origins=non kriki}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /kriːk/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English creke, altered from earlier kryk or crike (1220–30, and in place names from the 12th century),^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) probably [[bor|non|kriki|t=corner, nook]],^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(Hoad 1986)^(Collins 2023) perhaps reinforced by Anglo-French crique, itself from Norse through the Normans.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) The long vowel may come from [[m|dum|kreke]] (Dutch kreek “creek, bay”).^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(NODE 1998) Barnhart and Etymonline compare Swedish dialect krik “corner, bend, cove”, and relate it to [[crook]], with an original notion of bending.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A narrow inlet in a coastline or in the tidal estuary of a river: about 1250 in the OED; the form creke is from 1449.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ An inlet or short arm of a river is from the 1570s (1557 in Barnhart).^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) From this came the American use for a small stream or brook, recorded in 1622,^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) and creek for a branch of a main river in Canada, Australia and New Zealand too;^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) Etymonline suggests that explorers moving up main rivers took the mouths of tributaries for inlets.^(Etymonline) In the United States it is often pronounced crick.^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002) ''Up the creek'', in trouble, is attested by 1941, perhaps a cleaned-up form of ''up shit creek''.^(Etymonline)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1250 – a coastal inlet.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1449 – creke.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1577 – an arm of a river.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1622 – a small stream (American).^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * by 1941 – ''up the creek''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand)'' A small [[stream]] or [[tributary]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(chiefly British)'' A narrow [[inlet]] in a coastline or river bank.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A channel through a [[salt]] marsh.^(AHD)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[crook]]

+ * [[crick]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The Creek, a Native American confederacy of the southeastern United States, were named in English from the creek, the geographical feature, in 1725;^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024) the name is short for Ochese Creek Indians, from the place in Georgia where the English met them.^(Etymonline) An old Scots creek, dawn, as in ''creek of day'', is a different word, related to Dutch krieken “to break, of daylight”.^(SOED 2002)^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}