Gecrympan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To bend something into a curved or bent shape, or to draw it inward so that it curls up
2. Describing the act of folding or curving a thing so that its edges or surface draw together
3. Making a flexible object bow, bend or shrivel into a crooked, curled form

Etymology: Old English "gecrympan" is the past-tense-free infinitive form of a verb built on the adjective "crumb" or "crump," meaning bent or crooked. The "ge-" prefix was a common Old English marker that often gave verbs a sense of completion or result, so the verb means to bend something until it has become curved or crooked. It belongs to the same family as "crimp" and "crump," which share the same root idea of bending or folding in on itself. The word is attested in Old English texts, but its surviving record is thin, and it did not pass into Modern English. Its descendant is "crimp," which came into use in the later Middle Ages and was used for pleasing folds in cloth and hair. The Old English verb itself dropped out of the language, leaving only its relatives behind.