Etymology: Middle English cra(u)mpe, < Old French crampe (13th cent. in Littré), < Old Low German *krambe: compare Middle Low German and Middle Dutch krampe, Low German krampe, Dutch kramp (feminine), beside Old Saxon cramp, Old High German chrampf, German krampf (masculine), according to Kluge, a substantive use of cramp, Old High German chrampf adjective, compressed, bent in: see note at end of this article. The family of words etymologically related to cramp is very large. The ablaut series krimp- , kramp , krump- is a secondary (intensive) form of krimb- , kramb , krumb- (varying phonetically as krimm- , kramm , krumm- ) with the root-meaning ‘to press in, compress forcibly’, as mentioned under cram v. There may have even been a simpler series krim- , kram , krum- , represented by Old Norse kremja ‘to pinch, squeeze’. Compare the parallel relation of clam n.¹, clamp n.¹, and of the stems cring- , crink- , mentioned under crank n.¹ The English members of the group are, I. from stem krimb- , krimm- : 1. Old English strong verb crimman , cramm , crummen to press in. 2. cram v.; crome n. 3. crumb v.², crumb adj.; crummie n. and adj. II. from stem krimp- : 1. crimp v.¹, and their derivatives. 2. cramp n.², and derivatives. 3. crump adj.¹; crumpy n., etc. III. from diminutive stem krimbil- : crimble v., cramble v. IV. from diminutive stem krimpil- : crimple v.; crample v.; crumple v., and their derivatives. There is a strong analogy both of form and sense between this group and the parallel series of cring, crink, crank, cringle, crangle, crinkle, crankle, crunkle.

Etymology: Found since 16th century: apparently < Dutch or Low German. Compare Middle Dutch krampe (Kilian, in modern Dutch replaced by kram ), Old High German chramph ‘hook, aduncus ’ and chrampho , Middle High German kramphe , modern German dialect krampf , masculine; also modern German krampe , properly of Low German origin: originally the same word as cramp n.¹, but now differentiated in the various languages (modern German krampf spasm, krampe the instrument, Dutch kramp and kram); the immediate derivation of the two words in English is distinct.

Etymology: Not known before 17th cent., and perhaps formed < cramp n.² or cramp v. But an adjective crampe cramped, seized or affected with cramp, occurs in Old French (compare goutte-crampe in Littré), and the word is old in Germanic: Icelandic krapp-r , for earlier Norse *kramp-r contracted, strait, narrow, Old High German chramph , cramf , forcibly squeezed together, crooked, < Germanic verb stem krimpan , kramp , krumpen , to press together with force, compress, for which see note to cramp n.¹ In Old English the only trace of the word is in the adjective crompeht as a gloss of folialis; compare ‘foliatum curbutum’ in Corpus Glossary (Hessels) 67.

Etymology: Strictly two words < cramp n.¹ and cramp n.² respectively; but these have run together in use, and have given rise to senses which partake of both notions.