English
scrump
Scrump may come from Middle Low German schrimpen ‘to shrivel up, shrink’.
- Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600schrimpen‘to shrivel up, shrink’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1994scrump
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600schrimpen‘to shrivel up, shrink’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1994scrump
Earliest quotation: 1994, Edward Bond, Edward Bond Letters: “(we've all seen trees, and arent Adam and Eve…”
The story
From a dialectal variation of scrimp, probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrimpen (‘to shrivel up, shrink’), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną, *skrimbaną (‘to shrink’), related to Old English sċrimman (‘to shrink, draw up, contract’).
Linked words
through Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną ‘to shrink’
Today it means
noun Anything small or undersized.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle Low German schrimpen / scrump