krûd / kruid / kruie
| EN | Herb, pot-herb, medicinal plant; (German) Kraut also means 'cabbage' and is the source of the English 'sauerkraut'. |
| NL | Kruid: kruidachtige plant, keukenkruid, geneeskruid. Meervoud: kruiden. |
| AF | Kruie (meervoud van kruid): kruie, geurige of geneeskragtige plante. Monolexemiese meervoud; enkelvoud minder gebruiklik. |
| DE | Kraut (n): Kraut, Kräuter; Gemüse; Kohl (in southern German). Plural Kräuter (herbs) or Kräuter/Kraut in regional use. |
| FY | Krûd: krûd, krûdplant. Standert Frysk foar 'herb'. Plural krûden. |
Proto-form *krūdą
First attested Old Dutch 'crūt' ca. 10th c. (glosses); OHG 'krūt' 9th c. (…
From Proto-West Germanic *krūd (herb, plant), from Proto-Germanic *krūdą. Old Dutch 'crūt', Middle Dutch 'cruut', modern Dutch 'kruid', West Frisian 'krûd', Afrikaans 'kruid' / plural 'kruie', German 'Kraut'. The PIE root is uncertain; possibly *ǵreh₂- (to grow).
Proto-West Germanic *krūd is well-attested across the West Germanic branch: Old Dutch 'crūt', Old High German 'krūt', Old English 'crūdan' is not related (that means 'to press/crowd'); Old Saxon 'krūd'. The initial /kr-/ and long /ū/ are consistent across WGmc. The PIE root has not been established with certainty; some scholars connect it to *ǵreh₂- (to grow, be green), but this is disputed. The West Frisian 'krûd' preserves the long vowel with the Frisian 'breaking' (OFris ū > WFris û). Dutch 'kruid' shows the regular Dutch diphthongisation of Middle Dutch long /ū/ > /œy̯/ (the same process as in 'huis', 'muis', 'kruid'). Afrikaans inherited 'kruid' but the plural 'kruie' (< 'kruiden' with apocope of -n and vowel adjustment) has become so dominant that it often functions as a de facto base form in spoken Afrikaans. German 'Kraut' retained a broader semantic range including leafy vegetables and cabbage (regional), giving English 'sauerkraut' (sour herb/cabbage). The word is a superb demonstration of the cross-language fingerprint methodology: the same ancient root appears in four of the five target languages with predictable phonological correspondences (/krūd/ WFY > /krœy̯t/ NL > /krœyə/ AF > /kraʊt/ DE), each following the regular sound changes of its language.
| Form | Language | Region | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| krûd | fy | Fryslân | West Frisian form; long û from OFris ū |
| kruid | nl | nationwide | Standard Dutch; diphthong from MDu long ū |
| kruie | af | nationwide | Afrikaans plural as base form; < kruiden with apocope |
| kruid | af | nationwide | Afrikaans singular, used but less common than plural |
| Kraut | de | nationwide | German; also means cabbage in southern dialects; see sauerkraut |
| Language | Form | Gloss | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| fy | krûd | herb | West Frisian; OFris ū > WFris û |
| de | Kraut | herb; cabbage (regional) | German; OHG krūt; semantic broadening to include vegetables |
| en | sauerkraut | fermented cabbage | English loan from German Sauerkraut (sauer + Kraut) |
| nl | kruidnagel | clove (spice) | Compound: kruid + nagel (nail) — herb-nail, from the shape of the clove |
Netherlands (nationwide); Fryslân; South Africa (nationwide); Germany (nationwide)
◆ Standard replacementsThis word has been displaced in modern usage by: None — primary term in all four languages .
- WNT, s.v. *kruid*. https://gtb.ivdnt.org
- WAT, s.v. *kruie*. https://www.wat.ac.za
- WFT, s.v. *krûd*. Wurdboek fan de Fryske Taal. https://wft.fryske-akademy.nl
- DWDS, s.v. *Kraut*. https://www.dwds.de/wb/Kraut
- Philippa et al. (2003–2009). EWN, s.v. *kruid*. https://etymologiebank.nl
- Wiktionary, s.v. *kruid* (Dutch), *krûd* (West Frisian). Accessed 2026-04.
The kruid/krûd/kruie/Kraut cluster is the platform's cleanest demonstration of the phonological fingerprint methodology: four languages, one root, four predictable sound-correspondences. The demo transcripts are saturated with this word's referents: Greta Visser's grandmother's garden 'vol kruiden', Tryntsje de Vries's mother picking 'de krûden', Helga Weber's 'Kräutergarten' with sage and thyme, Sarie Coetzee's mother who 'altyd na grond en kruie geruik het'. The lexicon entry makes the underlying linguistic unity of these sensory memories visible.