Etymology

cramp

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Today it means: A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled; (sometimes) a similar pain even without noticeable contraction. Full definition →

Middle English crampe ← Old French crampe ← Middle Dutch crampe
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*krampô
  2. Frankish*krampō
  3. Proto-Germanic*krampô
  4. Middle Dutchcrampe
  5. Old Frenchcrampe
  6. Middle Englishcrampe
  7. English todaycramp

From Middle English crampe, from Old French crampe (“cramp”), from Frankish *krampa (“cramp”), from Proto-West Germanic *krampu, from Proto-Germanic *krampō (“cramp, clasp”). Distant relative of English crop.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.