Etymology

crowd

C3R1O1W4D2

Today it means: To press forward; to advance by pushing. Full definition →

Middle English crouden ← Old English crūdan ← Proto-West Germanic *krūdan
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crowd · verb, noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*grewt-
  2. Proto-Germanic*krūdaną
  3. Proto-West Germanic*krūdan
  4. Old Englishcrūdan
  5. Middle Englishcrouden
  6. English todaycrowd

From Middle English crouden, from Old English crūdan, from Proto-West Germanic *krūdan, from Proto-Germanic *krūdaną, *kreudaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *grewt- (“to push; press”). Cognate with German Low German kroden (“to push, shove”), Dutch kruien (“to push, shove”). (group of people, mob): Compare typologically throng (<<~ Proto-Germanic *þrinhwaną); Czech dav (akin to Russian дави́ть (davítʹ), да́вка (dávka)); Polish ciżba, ścisk (<~ ciskać, akin to ти́скать (tískatʹ)); Polish tłok, Russian толчея́ (tolčejá) (akin to толка́ть (tolkátʹ)).

crowd · noun, verb2

  1. Celtic · derived from
  2. Welsh · derived fromcrwth
  3. Middle English · inherited fromcrowde
  4. English todaycrowd

Inherited from Middle English crowde, from Welsh crwth or a Celtic cognate.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishcrūdan all →

crud

Middle Englishcrowde all →

crwth

Welshcrwth all →

crwth

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.