Etymology

crave

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Today it means: To desire strongly, so as to satisfy an appetite; to long or yearn for. Full definition →

Middle English craven ← Old English crafian ← Proto-West Germanic *krafōn
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*krafjaną“to demand”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*krafōn
  3. Old English · inherited fromcrafian“to crave, ask, implore, demand, summon”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromcraven
  5. English todaycrave

From Middle English craven, from Old English crafian (“to crave, ask, implore, demand, summon”), from Proto-West Germanic *krafōn, from Proto-Germanic *krafjaną (“to demand”). Cognate with Danish kræve (“to demand, require”), Swedish kräva (“to crave, demand”), Icelandic krefja (“to demand”), Norwegian kreve (“to demand”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.