Etymograph

English

crowd

Crowd comes from Middle English crouden ‘to cram’, from Old English crūdan ‘to press forward’, from Proto-Germanic *krūdaną, apparently from PIE *grewt- ‘to push’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*grewt-1‘to push; press’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*krūdaną1‘to crowd, press’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*krūdan1reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150crūdan1‘to press (forward)’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crouden1‘to cram; to drive into a confined space’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1599crowd1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English crowd
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.: “[…]The Time (miſ-order’d) doth in common ſence / Crowd…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*grewt-Wiktionary, English crowd‘to push; press’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*krūdanąWiktionary, English crowd‘to crowd, press’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*krūdanWiktionary, English crowdreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150crūdanWiktionary, English crowd‘to press (forward)’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500croudenWiktionary, English crowd‘to cram; to drive into a confined space’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1599crowdWiktionary, English crowd. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.: “[…]The Time (miſ-order’d) doth in common ſence / Crowd…”

Linked words

through Old English crūdan ‘to press (forward)’

crud

Another origin of crowd

  1. Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*kruttos‘round thing’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Brythonicc. 100 BCE–500 CE*kruθreconstructed
  3. Middle Welshc. 1150–1500crwth
  4. Welshc. 1500–presentcrwth
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crowde‘a crwth, crowd or a similar musical instrument’
  6. Englishtodaycrowd

Today it means

verb To press forward; to advance by pushing.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “crowd”. 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 *grewt- / crowd

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