Etymograph

English

grift

Grift may come from Middle Dutch graft ‘digging, ditch, canal, trench’.

  1. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500graft‘digging, ditch, canal, trench’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 2022grift

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500graft‘digging, ditch, canal, trench’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 2022grift

Earliest quotation: 2022, Paul McAuley, Beyond the Burn Line: “‘Sounds like he’s trying to stretch out his grift…”

The story

American criminal underworld slang, 1906 (noun), 1915 (verb), alteration of graft (‘corruption, illicit profit through corrupt means, bribe, one's occupation’), alteration perhaps influenced by similar sounding words, e.g. drift, etc., probably ultimately from Middle Dutch graft (‘digging, ditch, canal, trench’) (modern Dutch gracht), related to Dutch graven (‘to dig’), English grave (‘to dig’).

Every English word from Middle Dutch graft

Today it means

noun A confidence game or swindle.

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

Etymograph / Middle Dutch graft / grift

Shirt and support for this word