Etymology: apparently of Celtic origin: compare Irish and Gaelic creag, Manx creg, cregg, Welsh craig rock. None of these, however, exactly gives the English crag, cragg, found in northern dialect already before 1300, and apparently of ancient use in the local nomenclature of the north of England and Scottish Lowlands. The modern Scots craig comes nearer in its vowel to the Celtic form; but it is apparently a later development from an earlier crag (found in 14–15th cent.): compare Scots naig = nag, etc. The relations of the Celtic words themselves are obscure. Welsh craig is not the corresponding form to Irish and Gaelic creag, which would require crech in Welsh. Welsh has also carreg, Old Welsh carrecc, a stone (sometimes also, a rock), Irish carruig, Old Irish carricc, rock, rocky headland, anglicized carrick.

Etymology: Chiefly northern: in Scots from 14th cent., and may be older. It corresponds to Dutch kraag, Middle Dutch crāghe (Kilian kraeghe) masculine and feminine, German kragen, Middle High German krage (masculine), East Frisian krage, West Frisian kreage, neck, collar; also to Icelandic kragi, Norwegian and Swedish krage, Danish krave collar. The West Germanic type is *krago ; but the non-appearance of the word in the earlier stages of the languages is notable. The general opinion of etymologists also is that the Norse and Scandinavian words are from German, since they show only the secondary sense ‘collar’; in that case the English word is probably from some Low German source: no Old English *craga is recorded, and, if it existed, it could only give craw n.

Etymology: A variant of scrag n.¹: compare crag n.² 2.