Etymology

shrink

S1H4R1I1N1K5

Today it means: To cause to become smaller. Full definition →

Middle English schrynken ← Old English sċrincan ← Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*skrinkwaną
  2. Old English · inherited fromsċrincan
  3. Middle English · inherited fromschrynken
  4. English todayshrink

From Middle English schrynken, from Old English sċrincan, from Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną. Cognate with Dutch schrinken (“to shrink”). The sense “psychologist, psychotherapist” is a clipping of head-shrinker.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*skrinkwaną all →

shrugshrivel

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.