Creek
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creek¹
- /ˈkɹiːk/
- [kʰɹʷɪi̯k]
- /ˈkɹɪk/
- [ˈkʰɹʷɪk]
Sounds like creak, crick · Rhymes with -iːk, -ɪk
Where it comes from
From Middle English crike, probably from Old Norse kriki, from Proto-Germanic *krikjô, variant of krekô, from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, to wind”); the modern form creek (already late Middle English creke) either reflects open-syllable lengthening of Middle English /i/ or reborrowing from Middle Dutch krēke., Compare typologically English bight, akin to bend, bow.
See also Old Dutch creka, crika (“inlet, cove, creek”), Medieval Latin creca, crica, kríkr (“angle, corner, nook, bay”), Old Norse kraki (“pole with a hook, anchor”), and possibly Old Norse krókr (“hook, bend, bight”). Modern cognates include West Frisian kreek (“creek”), Dutch kreek (“creek, cove, inlet, bight”), and French crique (“cove”) (borrowed from Germanic).
Early British colonists of Australia and the Americas used the term in the usual British way, to name inlets; as settlements followed the inlets upstream and inland, the names were retained and creek came to be used to refer to any small waterway. A similar semantic development occurred in Dutch and French, where the word originally meant "bay" but came to mean "stream" especially in the French and Dutch colonies (French Guiana, Dutch Guiana and Indonesia).
noun creeks · crick · crike · cryke · crik
- A small inlet, often saltwater, leading to the sea or to the main channel of a river, especially a river estuary. Seven miles to the north of Venice, the banks of sand, which near the city rise little above low-water mark, attain by degrees a higher level, and knit themselves at last into fields of salt morass, raised here and there into shapeless mounds, and intercepted by narrow creeks of sea.
- The inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.
- A stream of water, typically a stream of freshwater smaller than a river; in Australia, also used of river-sized bodies of water. We all feel it Looming, even when we're awake, out there ahead someplace, the way you come to feel a River or Creek ahead, before anything else,— sound, sky, vegetation,— may have announced it.
- Any turn or winding.
Creek²
Where it comes from
* As an English surname, from Creake in Norfolk, a variant of the noun crag (“steep rugged cliff”).
* Also as an English surname, from the archaic noun cratch (“crib, manger”).
* As a German surname, Americanized from Krieg (“war, warfare”), Krück, Kruck (see Krug (“jug”) and Krücke (“crutch”)), Krick.
* As a Dutch surname, Americanized from Kreek (from the noun kreek (“creek”), see creek) and Kriek (from kriek (“cherry”)).
* The Native American tribe name is likely shortened from Ocheese Creek (the Hitchiti name for the body of water known today as the Ocmulgee River).
noun Creeks · Creek
- One of a Native American tribe from the Southeastern United States, also known as the Muscogee. Revis, who moved to Macon two-and-a half years ago to work on the park effort, noted that after the Muscogee (Creek) were removed to Oklahoma, the site became a slave plantation.
proper noun
- The Muskogean language of the Creek tribe.
- A surname.
adjective
- Of or pertaining to the Creek tribe. The chieftain was well versed in Creek history.
Creek³
Where it comes from
Blend of Craig + Tweek (an alteration of tweak).
proper noun
- The ship of characters Craig Tucker and Tweek Tweak from the South Park series. For at least a decade, people on the internet have been drawing fan art of the love between this two characters (a ship known as "Creek"). A cursory search of DeviantArt shows Creek art dating back to 2005. And when Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided it was finally time to acknowledge Creek and thei
