Wiktionary

cran

See also: cran-, Cran, and CRAN

English

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Etymology 1

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Evidently from, or at least influenced by Goidelic; compare Scottish Gaelic crann (“lot, measure of herring, tree, etc.”).

Alternative forms

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Noun

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cran (plural crans or cran)

  1. (obsolete) A measure of herrings, either imprecise or sometimes legally specified. It has oftentimes been about 37½ imperial gallons, or ~750 herrings on average (up to 1200 or even ~2500).
    • 1800 Dec, Sir Richard Phillips, The Monthly magazine‎[1], volume 10, number 66, page 486:
      Very flattering indeed has been the success of the fishermen; and many boats have come in loaded, averaging thirty or forty crans each (every cran estimated at 1,000 herrings), and disposed of their cargoes at nine shillings per cran; but the price has been since raised to fifteen shillings.
    • 1938, Louis MacNeice, Bagpipe Music:
      His brother caught three hundred cran when the seas were lavish, / Threw the bleeders back in the sea and went upon the parish.
    • 1960, Ewan MacColl, BBC radio ballad, Singing the Fishing:
      […] And fish the knolls on the North Sea Holes
      And try your luck at the North Shields Gut
      With a catch of a hundred cran.
    • 1970s, Archie Fisher, The Final Trawl:
      But I've fished a lifetime, boy and man,
      And the final trawl scarcely makes a cran.
  2. (obsolete, rare, by extension) A barrel made to hold such a measure.

Etymology 2

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

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cran (plural crans)

  1. (music) An embellishment played on the lowest note of a chanter of a bagpipe, consisting of a series of grace notes produced by rapid sequential lifting of the fingers of the lower hand.

Etymology 3

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Noun

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cran (plural crans)

  1. Alternative form of qiran

See also

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Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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Deverbal of créner (“to kern”), from crenedes (“notched”), from Vulgar Latin *crinare, probably of Celtic/Gaulish origin, from Proto-Celtic *krini-, from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to divide, separate”).[1] Or, less likely, from Latin cernō (“to separate”), itself from the same root.[2]

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kʁɑ̃/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

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cran m (plural crans)

  1. notch
  2. (firearms) safety catch
  3. (belt) hole
  4. (hair) wave
  5. (colloquial) guts, bottle, courage
    Ce garçon a du cran, pour oser sauter en parachute.
    That boy has guts to dare do a parachute jump.
    • 1998, “Agrévolution”, in Ol Kainry (lyrics), Ce n’est que l’début, performed by Agression Verbale:
      Tu sais pourquoi on voit grand, depuis qu’on est grand, qu’on a du cran / C’est que la merde nous a pendu, on est adolescent / Cran d’arrêt en guise de porte bonheur
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ “cranny”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “cranny”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

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Old English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-West Germanic *kranō.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cran m

  1. crane (bird)
    Se cran wæs standende on ānum sċancan.
    The crane was standing on one leg.
    Oft man ġehīerþ cranas lange ǣr hē hīe ġesiehþ.
    You often hear cranes long before you see them.
    Þā cranas wyrċaþ heora nest on ċiriċena belhūsum.
    The cranes make their nests in the bell towers of churches.

Declension

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Strong a-stem:

singular plural
nominative cran cranas
accusative cran cranas
genitive cranes crana
dative crane cranum

Descendants

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Romanian

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Noun

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cran n (plural cranuri)

  1. Obsolete form of craniu.

Declension

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Declension of cran
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative cran cranul cranuri cranurile
genitive-dative cran cranului cranuri cranurilor
vocative cranule cranurilor

References

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  • cran in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN
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