English
crawfish
Crawfish comes from Middle English crevis ‘crayfish, lobster’, and goes back to Old French crevice.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400crevice‘crayfish, crawfish’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crevis‘crayfish, lobster’
- Englishearliest quotation 1934crawfish
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400crevice‘crayfish, crawfish’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crevis‘crayfish, lobster’
- Englishearliest quotation 1934crawfish
Earliest quotation: 1934, Ernest Bramah: “As a matter of fact I had to go…”
The story
1620s, folk etymology (compare crawl) from Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice (‘crab’) (French écrevisse), influenced by fish.folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted.
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 ‘crab’
Today it means
noun Any of various freshwater crustaceans: crayfish.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old French crevice / crawfish