# Etymology of "skrike" for crying
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 18, 2010, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523 "2010-04-18T11:13:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2010, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/1 "2010-04-18T11:13:14Z")
“Skriking” is a dialectical word for crying that’s used a lot in the north of England. My mum used to say it all the time. I’ve tried searching for the etymology of this word, but cannot find it (Google keeps assuming I’m searching for “strike”). Where does it come from? It sounds incredibly harsh on the ears.
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### Author:  [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2010, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/2 "2010-04-18T11:23:33Z")
It’s s **c** rike, and according to the Urban Dictionary, it’s the most random word ever invented in the north west of England. That’s the best I can do, **CRSP**! 😉
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2010, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/3 "2010-04-18T11:23:36Z")
Perhaps you should look to skreak, screak, or skreigh in your search. They’re all words that imitate a sound they are used to describe.
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### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2010, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/4 "2010-04-18T11:32:01Z")
Aha, spelling it “scrike”, Google found me [this](http://books.google.com/books?id=DUufF6DyfvIC&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=%2Bscrike+etymology&source=bl&ots=UtNlhRyRfa&sig=EY4VliFN-vK1Kl57i3M2Oi3KQ_4&hl=en&ei=KO3KS86ZNo_u0gSc24G2BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CCkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=%2Bscrike%20etymology&f=false). It’s from Old Norse “skrika”.
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### Author:  [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/5 "2010-04-18T12:07:36Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#):
>
> Aha, spelling it “scrike”, Google found me [this](http://books.google.com/books?id=DUufF6DyfvIC&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=%2Bscrike+etymology&source=bl&ots=UtNlhRyRfa&sig=EY4VliFN-vK1Kl57i3M2Oi3KQ_4&hl=en&ei=KO3KS86ZNo_u0gSc24G2BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CCkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=%2Bscrike%20etymology&f=false). It’s from Old Norse “skrika”.
It’s still skrike/skriking in Norwegian, but it means screaming rather than crying (in most dialects and usages, anyway). Hence [the painting.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_scream)
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### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/6 "2010-04-18T12:51:12Z")
Yeah, scrike means something slightly more than crying in northern English dialects. It generally means hysterical crying.
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### Author:  [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/7 "2010-04-19T13:00:04Z")
> [@toodlepip](#):
>
> It’s still skrike/skriking in Norwegian, but it means screaming rather than crying
And the same for Swedish.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/8 "2010-04-19T14:40:07Z")
A more widely-known variant of the same ancestral word is of course _shriek_.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/9 "2010-04-19T14:41:08Z")
It [looks to me like it’s related to the words “shriek” and “screech”](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=screech&searchmode=none):
> [@](#):
>
> screech
> mid-13c., schrichen, possibly of imitative origin (cf. shriek). The noun is first recorded 1550s. Screech owl is attested from 1590s (scritch-owl is from 1520s).
>
> shriek (v.)
> c.1200, scrycke, from O.N. skrækja “to screech” (see screech), probably of imitative origin. The noun is attested from 1590.
The Middle English “scrycke” would have been pronounced something like “skree-kuh.” “Ee” -\> long-i diphthong was one aspect of the Great Vowel Shift. (I assume “skrike” rhymes with “strike”). Dropping the schwa “e” at the end is standard these days. With those two changes, you’ve got your word “scrike.”
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/10 "2010-04-21T06:25:47Z")
There certainly was a lot of Scandinavian influence on the English language, beginning around 850. That’s also where we got the word “egg” (the food).
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2010, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/11 "2010-04-21T10:00:59Z")
OED: Richard the Lionheared., 13th c.: The Crysten men gunne make a great skryke; see English Dialect Dictionary (also a separate entry for the verb form.) Last entry in OED is from 1959, says the verb is “common in the area of Blackburn, Bolton, Manchester, Stockport, and Halifax.”
The Dialect dictionary gives three post-1900 usages, all in the sense of shrieking, great cry, whining, etc. BTW OE has nice cite from The Hobbit.
Ain’t the OED great?
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### Author:  [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2010, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-skrike-for-crying/536523/12 "2010-04-21T10:07:06Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> There certainly was a lot of Scandinavian influence on the English language, beginning around 850.
So, would it be accurate to say English evolved under the influence of other languages, or would “developed” be a much better word?