Etymograph

English

crab

Crab comes from Proto-Indo-European *grobʰeh₂yéti ‘to scratch’, and goes back to *gerbʰ- ‘to carve’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gerbʰ-‘to carve’root as named
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*grobʰeh₂yéti‘to scratch’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*krabbôreconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*krabbōreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150crabba
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crabbe
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1844crab

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gerbʰ-‘to carve’root as named
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*grobʰeh₂yéti‘to scratch’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*krabbôreconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*krabbōreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150crabba
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crabbe
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1844crab

Earliest quotation: 1844, Albert Henry Payne, Payne's universum: “[…] the unsold copies may be returned to the…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- ‘to carve’

photo, cinema, graphic, grammar, carve, graffiti, graft, graphite, crawl, graphene, demography, grimoire, ultrasonography, epigraph, epigram, sonography, 82 more

through Proto-Germanic *krabbô

crawfish

Another origin of crab

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crabbe‘wild apple’
  2. Englishtodaycrab

Today it means

noun Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- / crab

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