kriechen

Middle High German kriechen, from Old High German kriohhan, from Proto-West Germanic *kreukan, from Proto-Germanic *kreukaną.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʁiːçn̩/, /ˈkʁiːçən/ (Germany)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʁiːçn̩/, /ˈkʁiːçɛn/ (Austria, Southern Germany, Switzerland)

kriechen (class 2 strong, third-person singular present kriecht, past tense kroch, past participle gekrochen, past subjunctive kröche, auxiliary sein)

1. (intransitive) to creep; to crawl
   • 1995, “Du riechst so gut”, in Rammstein (music), Herzeleid, performed by Rammstein:

     Ein blindes Kind, das vorwärts kriecht / Weil es seine Mutter riecht

     A blind child who crawls forward / Because it smells its mother

• “kriechen” in Duden online
• “kriechen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “kriechen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon

Inherited from Old High German kriohan, from Proto-Germanic *kreukaną.

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈkriə̯xən/

kriechen (class 2 strong, third-person singular present kriuchet, past tense krouch or krōch, past participle gekrochen, past subjunctive krüche, auxiliary hān)

1. (intransitive) to creep, to crawl

• The form krōch existed alongside krouch as a first/third-person singular preterite indicative form.
  • The Proto-West Germanic ancestor to Middle High German krouch was *krauk.
  • It was not typical for Proto-West Germanic *au to become monophthongized to /oː/ when before the Old High German. /x/ from Proto-West Germanic *k. Instead, it typically became Old High German /ou̯/.
    • As a result, it may have been the case that the secondary form krōch arose via association with the first/third-person singular preterite indicative forms like vlōch and zōch, which corresponded respectively to vliehen and ziehen.

• German: kriechen

• Benecke, Georg Friedrich; Müller, Wilhelm; Zarncke, Friedrich (1863), “kriechen”, in Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch: mit Benutzung des Nachlasses von Benecke, Stuttgart: S. Hirzel