Etymograph

English

shrink

Shrink comes from Middle English schrynken ‘to shrivel up or wrinkle’, from Old English sċrincan ‘to shrink’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skrinkwaną‘to shrink, pull together, shrivel’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċrincan‘to shrink’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schrynken‘to shrivel up or wrinkle’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1627shrink

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skrinkwaną‘to shrink, pull together, shrivel’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċrincan‘to shrink’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schrynken‘to shrivel up or wrinkle’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1627shrink

Earliest quotation: 1627, (please specify the page, or |century=I to X): “I have not found that water, by mixture of…”

The story

The sense “psychologist, psychotherapist” is a clipping of head-shrinker.

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną

Today it means

verb To cause to become smaller.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną / shrink

Shirt and support for this word