Where does “crawl” come from?
Crawl comes from Middle English crawlen, from Old Norse krafla, from Proto-Germanic krablōną and krabbōną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European roots grobʰ- and gerebʰ-.
crawl (English): To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or...
Definitions
- To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or...
Ancestry of “crawl”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | crawlen | to crawl |
| 2 | Old Norse | krafla | — |
| 3 | Proto-Germanic | krablōną | — |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | krabbōną | to scratch, scrape |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | gerbʰ- | to carve |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | ger- | to turn, bend, twist, wind; to tie, bind... |
Words derived from “crawl”