English word origin

Etymology of Crewe

Recorded as Creu in the Domesday Book, the town's name is derived from Old Welsh criu (“weir; crossing”) (compare modern Welsh cryw).

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In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗

name

A town and civil parish with a town council in Cheshire East district, Cheshire, England (OS grid ref SJ7055). · A town in Nottoway County, Virginia, United States. · A habitational surname from Welsh.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Recorded as Creu in the Domesday Book, the town's name is derived from Old Welsh criu (“weir; crossing”) (compare modern Welsh cryw).

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Derivation mentioncriuowl
Cognate mentioncrywcy

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

{
  "templates": [
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "owl",
        "3": "criu",
        "4": "",
        "5": "weir; crossing"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Welsh criu (“weir; crossing”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "cy",
        "2": "cryw"
      },
      "expansion": "Welsh cryw"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "criu",
      "criu#Old_Welsh"
    ],
    [
      "cryw",
      "cryw#Welsh"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "name",
      "glosses": [
        "A town and civil parish with a town council in Cheshire East district, Cheshire, England (OS grid ref SJ7055).",
        "A town in Nottoway County, Virginia, United States.",
        "A habitational surname from Welsh."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "recordId": "459a3d18d979fbac988d6ba1e67156768e92d26837561188c9fac573c3bb2374",
      "rawRecordSha256": "3a04018e2c43edcbda8234f5e63394f509ec6520daf8060f8c9394e54066787a",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 539566
    }
  ],
  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
    "references": 0,
    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 0,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for Crewe →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger

Machine-source provenance

Source SHA-256: 5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run: 73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID: w-Q3Jld2U