Crowde

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling of a dense throng of people packed together in one place ; to press or push things tightly into a small space ; an old bowed stringed instrument played in medieval Europe
2. A large, closely packed mass of people gathered in one spot ; the act of squeezing or pressing things together into a confined area ; a early bowed string instrument, the ancestor of the fiddle
3. An old-fashioned term for a throng of people assembled together ; a verb meaning to cram or press into a narrow space ; a medieval lute-like instrument played with a bow

Etymology: Before it meant a throng of people, "crowde" was a Middle English spelling of a verb meaning to push or press, inherited from Old English "crūdan." Medieval writers used it for shoving through a mass of people or pressing something tight, and the sense of pressing against others is still visible in the modern noun. A separate "crowd" is an old stringed instrument, a kind of fiddle, borrowed from Welsh "crwth." The name was used for it in English long before the crowd of people existed as a noun, so the two senses come from unrelated roots that happen to share a spelling.