Crip

Part of speech: noun, verb, adjective

Definitions

1. A disabled person, a term many now consider offensive ; a member of a Black American street gang that originated in Los Angeles ; an archaic verb meaning to lame or disable someone
2. Slang for a person with a disability, often regarded as derogatory ; a member of a Los Angeles-based street gang founded in the late 1960s ; an old verb meaning to make someone lame or unable to function
3. Informal and often offensive term for someone who is disabled ; a gang member from a Los Angeles street gang of Black American origin ; a rare, obsolete verb for rendering a person lame

Etymology: "Crip" is a clipping of "cripple," produced by chopping off the final syllable of the longer word. Clipping is a common way English shortens words, and it usually happens in informal speech, where a familiar word gets trimmed into something quicker to say. The longer form, "cripple," goes back to Old English "crypel," a word for someone who cannot walk properly, and it has long carried the sense of physical disability. The shorter "crip" follows the same pattern as many other clipped forms such as "fan" from "fanatic" or "bus" from "omnibus."

Synonyms: cripple