Cratch

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A wooden or metal framework designed to hold hay or straw for feeding livestock
2. A manger or rack from which animals eat hay and other dried feed
3. A container or framework used to dispense fodder to domestic animals

Etymology: Cratch has two unrelated English histories that happen to share a spelling. The first is a verb meaning "to scratch." It arrived in Middle English as an alteration of an older form, likely shaped by Old Norse or Middle Low German relatives of "scratch," and it is a close relative of "grate," the two being doublets that split apart over time. Its exact ultimate source is uncertain, though it may be imitative of the sound of scraping. The second is a noun meaning "crib" or "manger." It came into Middle English from Old French "creche," which in turn descended from a Frankish word for a feeding trough. That same ancestor gave English "crib" by a separate route, so the two words are cousins. The French "creche" has since come back into English as a word for a nativity scene and for a childcare facility, though those senses are later developments.

Synonyms: manger, crib