Etymology

crawl

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Today it means: To move by dragging one's body along or close to a surface, like a worm or insect, or on one's hands and knees, like a human baby. Full definition →

Middle English crawlen ← Old Norse krafla ← Proto-Germanic *krablōną
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crawl · verb, noun1

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*krablōną
  2. Old Norse · derived fromkrafla
  3. Middle English · derived fromcrawlen
  4. English todaycrawl

From Middle English crawlen, crewlen, creulen, crallen, *cravelen, from Old Norse krafla (compare Danish kravle (“to crawl, creep”), Swedish kravla, kräla (“to creep, crawl”)), from Proto-Germanic *krablōną (compare Saterland Frisian krabbelje, Dutch krabbelen, German Low German krabbeln, German krabbeln), frequentative of *krabbōną (“to scratch, scrape”). Compare also Saterland Frisian krauelje (“to crawl, scuttle”), West Frisian kreauwelje (“to crawl”), Dutch krevelen, krieuwelen (“to crawl”), German Low German kribbeln, German kribbeln (“to creep, crawl, tingle”). Piecewise doublet of crabble, etymologically equivalent to crab + -le.

crawl · noun2

Compare kraal.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.