Etymograph

English

ramp

Ramp comes from Old French ramper ‘to crawl, climb, scale up’, from Frankish *hrampōn ‘to contract oneself, wrinkle, rumple, crumple,…’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hrimpaną ‘to shrivel, shrink’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hrimpaną‘to shrivel, shrink’reconstructed
  2. Frankishc. 250–700*hrampōn‘to contract oneself, wrinkle, rumple, crumple, curve’reconstructed
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400ramper‘to crawl, climb, scale up’
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600rampe
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590ramp

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hrimpaną‘to shrivel, shrink’reconstructed
  2. Frankishc. 250–700*hrampōn‘to contract oneself, wrinkle, rumple, crumple, curve’reconstructed
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400ramper‘to crawl, climb, scale up’
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600rampe
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590ramp

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto V: “Their bridles they would champe, / And trampling the…”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *hrimpaną

Today it means

noun An inclined surface that connects two levels; an incline.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *hrimpaną / ramp

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