crītāre

Meaning

1. Proto Italo Western Romancereconstructionto cry out, shriek

Origins

Generally thought to be an evolved form of the Classical quirītāre. Note the late variant cirītāre and the vowel-loss in cases like drictus < dīrēctus. The formal and semantic coincidence of *crītāre and Proto-West Germanic *krītan has led to proposals of borrowing in one direction or the other. further information Coromines and Von Wartburg argue that *krītan is unlikely to be the source of *crītāre on account of the limited distribution and late appearance of the Germanic forms. They mention the possibility of borrowing in the other direction, which would explain the distribution in Germanic but not – Von Wartburg argues – the inserted /s/ in forms like the Middle High German krîsten. Ultimately they conclude that the Latin and Germanic word-families are of similar onomatopoeic origin, comparable to Proto-Slavic *krikъ and the like. On the other hand it should be noted that the Italo-Western distribution of the Romance word-family would not be inconsistent with a borrowing from Germanic into Late Latin (cf. raubāre) and that the attestation of a Crimean Gothic criten, if valid, would extend the time-depth and distribution of the Germanic word-family (see *krītaną).