creepyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[creep 词源字典]
creep: [OE] Creep is an ancient verb, which has been traced back to Indo–European *greub-. This was the source also of Dutch kriupen and Swedish krypa ‘creep’, and of Lithuanian grubineti ‘stumble’, and links have been suggested with English cripple. The related Indo-European *greug- produced German kriechen ‘creep’.
=> cripple[creep etymology, creep origin, 英语词源]
creep (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English creopan "to creep" (class II strong verb; past tense creap, past participle cropen), from Proto-Germanic *kreupan (cognates: Old Frisian kriapa, Middle Dutch crupen, Old Norse krjupa "to creep"), perhaps from a PIE root *g(e)r- "crooked" [Watkins]. Related: Crept; creeping.
creep (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"a creeping motion," 1818, from creep (v.). Meaning "despicable person" is 1935, American English slang, perhaps from earlier sense of "sneak thief" (1914). Creeper "a gilded rascal" is recorded from c. 1600, and the word also was used of certain classes of thieves, especially those who robbed customers in brothels. The creeps "a feeling of dread or revulsion" first attested 1849, in Dickens.