German

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Etymology

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From Middle High German krīschen, from Old High German *krīskan, from Proto-West Germanic *krīskan, from *krīskaną (to cry out, shout), from Proto-Indo-European *grey- (to shout). According to Pfeifer, this is an extension of Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (to cry hoarsely), which makes it cognate with dated/obsolete German kreißen (to cry in pain, give birth). Cognate with Dutch krijsen, Luxembourgish kräischen.

The weak past forms in contemporary German may be due to the formal merger with the early modern German causative kreischen (to make scream), from Middle High German *kreischen, attested in erkreischen. An additional reason may be the fact that the verb was non-native to most Upper German dialects.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈkʁaɪ̯ʃən/, [ˈkʁaɪ̯ʃn̩]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: krei‧schen

Verb

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kreischen (weak or class 1 strong, third-person singular present kreischt, past tense kreischte or (archaic) krisch, past participle gekreischt or (archaic) gekrischen, auxiliary haben)

  1. to squeal, to shriek, to scream
    Synonyms: brüllen, lärmen, schreien
  2. to screech
    Synonyms: quietschen, quieken
  3. (colloquial, regional) to cry, to weep
  4. (birdwatching) to squawk

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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References

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  • kreischen” in Duden online
  • kreischen”, in PONS (in German), Stuttgart: PONS GmbH, 2001–2024

Further reading

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  • kreischen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • kreischen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • kreischen” in Duden online
  • kreischen” in OpenThesaurus.de