Etymograph

English

cribrous

Cribrous comes from Latin cribrum ‘sieve’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *krey-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krey-1‘to sieve, pick out, separate’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kréydʰrom1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kreiðrom1reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcribrum2‘sieve’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1909cribrous2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin cribrum
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English cribrous
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1909, Jeremiah Sweetser Ferguson, Normal Histology and Microscopical Anatomy: “At the posterior pole of the eye the sclera…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krey-Wiktionary, Latin cribrum‘to sieve, pick out, separate’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kréydʰromWiktionary, Latin cribrumreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kreiðromWiktionary, Latin cribrumreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcribrumWiktionary, English cribrous‘sieve’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1909cribrousWiktionary, English cribrous. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1909, Jeremiah Sweetser Ferguson, Normal Histology and Microscopical Anatomy: “At the posterior pole of the eye the sclera…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *krey- ‘to sieve, pick out, separate’

certain, secretary, secret, crime, criminal, crisis, discrimination, discretion, critic, critique, discrete, discreet, discriminate, riddle, discern, criterion, hypocrite, endocrine, excrement, excretion, incriminate, rime, incrimination, excrete, certitude, ridder, recrimination, criterium, 44 more

Today it means

adj Perforated, as in the manner of a sieve.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “cribrous”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin cribrum. 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-Indo-European *krey- / cribrous

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