craw

See also: Craw

English

Alternative forms

• crag

Etymology

Late Middle English, also attested as craue, from or related to Old Norse *kravi (“neck, collar, gullet, crop of a bird”), of unclear origin (potentially cognate to crop), but historically a variation of kragi, the Norse analog of English crag. If craw and crag are cognates, then ultimately deriving from Proto-Germanic *kragô or Proto-West Germanic *kragō (“throat”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *gʷrogʰ- or *gʷrh₃-gʰ- (“throat, gullet”), whence also Proto-Celtic *brāgants (“throat, gullet”) and perhaps Ancient Greek βρόχθος (brókhthos, “throat”). The root appears to be an extension of Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to swallow, devour”), though the identity and meaning of the suffix is unclear. Compare Latin gurges (“gulf, bay; whirlpool, eddy”).

Other Germanic cognates include Swedish kräva (“crop of a bird”), Danish krave (“collar, crop of a bird”); Dutch kraag, Middle Dutch crāghe, Old Dutch kraga; German Kragen, Middle Low German krage, Middle High German krage, Old High German krago (“collar, neck”).

See also crag (Etymology 2).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, Northern England) IPA^(key): /kɹɔː/
• (Standard Southern British, Australia, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /kɹoː/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /kɾɔ/
• (Wales) IPA^(key): /kɾɔː/
• (US)
  • (without the cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /kɹɔ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /kɹɑ/
• Rhymes: -ɔː

Noun

craw (plural craws)

1. (archaic) The stomach of an animal.
2. The crop of a bird.

Synonyms

• crop
• gullet

Derived terms

• crawful
• crawthumper
• crawthumping
• stick in someone's craw

Translations

Crop of a bird

• Bulgarian: гуша (bg) f (guša)
• Czech: vole (cs) n
• Finnish: kupu (fi)
• French: goitre (fr) m, jabot (fr) m
• Irish: prócar m
• Italian: gozzo (it) m
• Māori: tāngaengae, tenga, tangai, nae
• Plautdietsch: Kropp f
• Polish: wole (pl) n
• Portuguese: papo (pt) m
• Russian: зоб (ru) m (zob)
• Slovak: hrvoľ m
• Turkish: kursak (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: قورساق (kursak)

Verb

craw (third-person singular simple present craws, present participle crawing, simple past and past participle crawed)

1. (archaic) To caw, crow.
   • 1828, David Macbeth Moir, The Life of Mansie Wauch‎^[1]:

     The night was now pitmirk; the wind soughed amid the head-stones and railings of the gentry, (for we must all die,) and the black corbies in the steeple-holes cackled and crawed in a fearsome manner.

Anagrams

• WRAC

Middle English

Noun

craw

1. alternative form of crowe

Welsh

Ffens grawiau

Etymology

From crawen (“crust, rind”), from Proto-Celtic *greup, from Proto-Indo-European *krus- (“crust”), see also Latin crusta (“crust”), Ancient Greek κρύος (krúos, “frost, icy cold”), κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “crystal, ice”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬎𐬰𐬛𐬭𐬀 (xruzdra, “hard”), Sanskrit क्रूड् (krūḍ, “thicken, make hard”).

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /kraːu̯/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /krau̯/

Noun

craw m (plural crawiau)

1. a rejected piece of slate, often used for building fences in quarrying regions of north Wales
2. a bad person, a bad lot

Mutation

Mutated forms of craw

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
craw	graw	nghraw	chraw

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “craw”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies