Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗A small inlet, often saltwater, leading to the sea or to the main channel of a river, especially a river estuary. · The inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats. · A stream of water, typically a stream of freshwater smaller than a river; in Australia, also used of river-sized bodies of water. · Any turn or winding.
From Middle English crike, probably from Old Norse kriki, from Proto-Germanic *krikjô, variant of krekô, from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, to wind”); the modern form creek (already late Middle English creke) either reflects open-syllable lengthening of Middle English /i/ or reborrowing from Middle Dutch krēke., Compare typologically English bight, akin to bend, bow. See also Old Dutch creka, crika (“inlet, cove, creek”), Medieval Latin creca, crica, kríkr (“angle, corner, nook, bay”), Old Norse kraki (“pole with a hook, anchor”), and possibly Old Norse krókr (“hook, bend, bight”). Modern cognates include West Frisian kreek (“creek”), Dutch kreek (“creek, cove, inlet, bight”), and French crique (“cove”) (borrowed from Germanic). Early British colonists of Australia and the Americas used the term in the usual British way, to name inlets; as settlements followed the inlets upstream and inland, the names were retained and creek came to be used to refer to any small waterway. A similar semantic development occurred in Dutch and French, where the word originally meant "bay" but came to mean "stream" especially in the French and Dutch colonies (French Guiana, Dutch Guiana and Indonesia).
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentioncrikeenm
- Derivation mentionkrikinon
- Derivation mention*krikjôgem-pro
- Derivation mention*ger-ine-pro
- Derivation mentionkrēkedum
- Cognate mentioncrekaodt
- Cognate mentionkrakinon · pole with a hook, anchor
- Cognate mentionkreekfy · creek
- Cognate mentionkreeknl · creek, cove, inlet, bight
- Cognate mentioncriquefr · cove
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "crike"
},
"expansion": "Middle English crike"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "non",
"3": "kriki"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse kriki"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*krikjô"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *krikjô"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*ger-",
"4": "",
"5": "to turn, to wind"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, to wind”)"
},
{
"name": "m+",
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "creke"
},
"expansion": "Middle English creke"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "dum",
"3": "krēke"
},
"expansion": "Middle Dutch krēke"
},
{
"name": "m+",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "bight"
},
"expansion": "English bight"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "odt",
"2": "creka"
},
"expansion": "Old Dutch creka"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "la-med",
"2": "creca"
},
"expansion": "Medieval Latin creca"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "non",
"2": "kraki",
"t": "pole with a hook, anchor"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse kraki (“pole with a hook, anchor”)"
},
{
"name": "m+",
"args": {
"1": "non",
"2": "krókr",
"t": "hook, bend, bight"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse krókr (“hook, bend, bight”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fy",
"2": "kreek",
"t": "creek"
},
"expansion": "West Frisian kreek (“creek”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nl",
"2": "kreek",
"t": "creek, cove, inlet, bight"
},
"expansion": "Dutch kreek (“creek, cove, inlet, bight”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fr",
"2": "crique",
"t": "cove"
},
"expansion": "French crique (“cove”)"
}
],
"links": [
[
"crike",
"crike#Middle_English"
],
[
"kriki",
"kriki#Old_Norse"
],
[
"*krikjô",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/krikjô"
],
[
"krekô",
"krekô#English"
],
[
"*ger-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/ger-"
],
[
"creke",
"creke#Middle_English"
],
[
"krēke",
"kreke#Middle_Dutch"
],
[
"bight",
"bight#English"
],
[
"bend",
"bend#English"
],
[
"bow",
"bow#English"
],
[
"creka",
"creka#Old_Dutch"
],
[
"crika",
"crika#Old_Dutch"
],
[
"creca",
"creca#Latin"
],
[
"crica",
"crica#Latin"
],
[
"kríkr",
"kríkr#Old_Norse"
],
[
"kraki",
"kraki#Old_Norse"
],
[
"krókr",
"krókr#Old_Norse"
],
[
"kreek",
"kreek#West_Frisian"
],
[
"kreek",
"kreek#Dutch"
],
[
"crique",
"crique#French"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [
{
"lang": "Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin",
"lang_code": "bpl",
"word": "kriki"
},
{
"lang": "Sranan Tongo",
"lang_code": "srn",
"word": "kriki"
}
],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A small inlet, often saltwater, leading to the sea or to the main channel of a river, especially a river estuary.",
"The inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.",
"A stream of water, typically a stream of freshwater smaller than a river; in Australia, also used of river-sized bodies of water.",
"Any turn or winding."
],
"tags": [
"UK",
"Australia",
"Canada",
"New-Zealand",
"US"
],
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}
}