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cruel (adj.)[cruel 词源字典]: early 13c., from Old French cruel (12c.), earlier crudel, from Latin crudelis "rude, unfeeling; cruel, hard-hearted," related to crudus "rough, raw, bloody" (see crude). Related: Cruelly. Latin medial -d- began to disappear 10c. in French: compare chance/cadentia, cheoir/cadere, joyeux/gaudiosus, juif/judaeus, moyen/medianus, obéir/obedire, séance/sedentia.[cruel etymology, cruel origin, 英语词源]
cruelty (n.): early 13c., from Old French crualté (12c., Modern French cruauté), from Latin crudelitatem (nominative crudelitas) "cruelty," from crudelis (see cruel).
cruet (n.): "small glass bottle for vinegar, oil, etc.," c. 1300, Anglo-French diminutive of Old French crue "an earthen pot," from Frankish *kruka or some other Germanic source (compare Old High German kruog); related to crock.
cruise (v.): 1650s, from Dutch kruisen "to cross, sail to and fro," from kruis "cross," from Latin crux. Compare the sense evolution in cognate cross (v.). Related: Cruised; cruising. As a noun from 1706.
cruiser (n.): 1670s, agent noun from cruise (v.), or, probably, borrowed from similar words in neighboring languages (such as Dutch kruiser, French croiseur), originally a warship built to cruise and protect commerce or chase hostile ships (but in 18c. often applied to privateers).
Like the frigate of olden days the cruiser relies primarily on her speed; and is employed to protect the trade-routes, to glean intelligence, and to act as the 'eyes of the fleet'. [Sir Geoffrey Callender, "Sea Passages," 1943]
Meaning "one who cruises for sex partners" is from 1903, in later use mostly of homosexuals; as a boxing weight class, from 1920; meaning "police patrol car" is 1929, American English.
cruller (n.): 1805, American English, apparently from Dutch kruller, from krullen "to curl," from Middle Dutch crullen, related to curl.
crumb (n.): Old English cruma "crumb, fragment," from a West Germanic root of obscure origin (compare Middle Dutch crume, Dutch kruim, German krume). The -b- appeared mid-15c., in part by analogy with words like dumb, in part perhaps reinforced by crumble. Slang meaning "lousy person" is 1918, from crumb, U.S. slang for "body-louse" (1863), so called from resemblance.
crumble (v.): late 15c., kremelen, from Old English *crymelan, presumed frequentative of gecrymman "to break into crumbs," from cruma (see crumb). The -b- is 16c., probably on analogy of French-derived words like humble, where it belongs, or by influence of crumb. Related: Crumbled; crumbling.
crumby (adj.): 1731, "full of crumbs," from crumb + -y (2). Overlapping somewhat with crummy, but generally restricted to the more literal senses.
crummy (adj.): 1560s, "easily crumbled;" 1570s, "like bread," from crumb + -y (2). The second sense probably accounts for 18c. (and later in dialects) use, of a woman, "attractively plump, full-figured, buxom." Slang meaning "shoddy, filthy, inferior, poorly made" in use by 1859, probably is from the first sense, but influenced by crumb in its slang sense of "louse."
crumpet (n.): 1690s, perhaps from crompid cake "wafer," literally "curled-up cake" (1382; Wyclif's rendering of Hebrew raqiq in Ex. 29:23), from crompid, past participle of crumpen "curl up." Alternative etymology is from Celtic (compare Breton krampoez "thin, flat cake"). Slang meaning "woman regarded as a sex object" is first recorded 1936.
crumple (v.): c. 1300, crumplen, frequentative of crumpen "to curl up" (from Old English crump "bent, crooked"). Related: Crumpled; crumpling.
crunch (v.): 1814, from craunch (1630s), probably of imitative origin. Related: Crunched; crunching. The noun is 1836, from the verb; the sense of "critical moment" was popularized 1939 by Winston Churchill, who had used it in his 1938 biography of Marlborough.
crunchy (adj.): 1892, from crunch + -y (2). Student slang sense of "annoyingly intense about health or environmental issues" is by 1990, short for crunchy granola (considered as natural and wholesome); not entirely pejorative at first. Related: Crunchiness.
crunk (n.): by 1999, style of popular music developed in U.S. South in 1990s; often said to be a contraction of crazy drunk. It was used early in a sense of "cool, good."
crusade (n.): 1706, respelling of croisade (1570s), from Middle French croisade (16c.), Spanish cruzada, both from Medieval Latin cruciata, past participle of cruciare "to mark with a cross," from Latin crux (genitive crucis) "cross." Other Middle English forms were croiserie, creiserie. Figurative sense of "campaign against a public evil" is from 1786.
crusade (v.): 1732, from crusade (n.). Related: Crusaded; crusading.
crusader (n.): 1743, from crusade + -er (1). Earlier was croisader, from French croisadeur.
cruse (n.): "small vessel for liquids," early 15c., perhaps related to Old Norse krus "pot, tankard," from a general Germanic root which is of unknown origin. Compare Middle Dutch cruese, Dutch kroes "cup, pot, mug," Middle Low German krus, Danish krus "mug, jug," German Krause "jug, mug."
crush (v.): mid-14c., from Old French cruissir (Modern French écraser), variant of croissir "to gnash (teeth), crash, break," perhaps from Frankish *krostjan "to gnash" (cognates: Gothic kriustan, Old Swedish krysta "to gnash"). Figurative sense of "to humiliate, demoralize" is c. 1600. Related: Crushed; crushing. Italian crosciare, Catalan cruxir, Spanish crujirare "to crack" are Germanic loan-words.