Etymograph

English

creep

Creep comes from Middle English crepen ‘to creep’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *kreupaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kreupaną1‘to twist, creep’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kreupan1‘to creep, crawl’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150crēopan1‘to creep, crawl’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crepen1‘to creep’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1602creep1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English creep
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida: “To come as humbly as they used to creep…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kreupanąWiktionary, English creep‘to twist, creep’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kreupanWiktionary, English creep‘to creep, crawl’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150crēopanWiktionary, English creep‘to creep, crawl’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crepenWiktionary, English creep‘to creep’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1602creepWiktionary, English creep. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida: “To come as humbly as they used to creep…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ- ‘to turn, wind’

group, mog, 6 more

Today it means

verb To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “creep”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *kreupaną / creep

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