2608: Crib (Building) Feb 4, 2022

'Crib' usually refers to a baby's bed, especially one with slatted walls, but as MTV would immortalize, it can also refer to someone's house or crime den. In fact, the criminal sense is older than that of regular domesticity, and seems to have originated with the sense of a basket or pouch for keeping stored, stolen items, and then denoted the hideout. Certainly, other senses of this word relate to storage, like 'corn crib' or in Australia that this can refer to a lunchbox. Further, the sense of 'crib' as 'cheating', like 'crib sheet' probably comes from this.

2596: crab, crib, & carve Jan 23, 2022

The word 'crab' is ultimately traced back to the Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- meaning 'to twist; to scratch; to claw', but so are 'carve', 'crib', and 'crèche'. Much of this has to do with leading to varied understanding, such as 'crab' and 'crayfish’ from Proto-Germanic *krabbô (to crawl) as opposed to 'crib' from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ (wickerwork, basket) from the sense of twisting & weaving material. This led to a sense of 'clump; group' and then 'crèche' was born. 'Carve' is from the sense of this word as scratching, and is related to the Old Prussian gīrbin (number) from the idea of tallying.