English
cry
Cry comes from Middle English crien, from Old French crier ‘to cry out, shout’, from Vulgar Latin *crītāre, of disputed origin.
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*crītāre1‘to cry out’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400crier1‘to cry out, shout’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crien1‘to weep or cry in sorrow’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596cry1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English cry
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame: “A cry more tunable / Was never hollaed to,…”.
Lineage
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*crītāreWiktionary, English cry‘to cry out’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400crierWiktionary, English cry‘to cry out, shout’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crienWiktionary, English cry‘to weep or cry in sorrow’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596cryWiktionary, English cry. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame: “A cry more tunable / Was never hollaed to,…”
The story
The verb is from Middle English crien (13th century), from Old French crier, from Vulgar Latin *crītāre, generally thought to derive from Classical Latin quirītāre (Proto-West Germanic *krītan has also been suggested as a source). Middle English crien eventually displaced native Middle English galen (‘to cry out’) (from Old English galan), Middle English greden (‘to cry out’) (from Old English grǣdan), Middle English yermen (‘to bellow, mourn, lament’) (from Old English ġierman), Middle English hooen, hoen (‘to cry out’) (from Old Norse hóa), Middle English remen (‘to cry, shout’) (from Old English hrīeman, compare Old English hrēam (‘noise, outcry, lamentation, alarm’)), Middle English greten, graten (‘to weep, cry, lament’) (from Old English grǣtan and Old Norse gráta). Already in the 13th century, the meaning was extended to include the sense "to shed tears" (natively weep); cry used in this sense had mostly replaced weep by the 16th century.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with cry, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
2 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
verb To shed tears; to weep, especially in anger or sadness.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “cry”. 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 / Vulgar Latin *crītāre / cry