Talk:crab
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In the UK slang sense of "twenty-pence piece" - does this exist? Does the urban myth really state that crabs have six legs? — Paul G 10:08, 8 October 2006 (UTC) I'd have thought that at least one of our UK residents would have known it. Rfvfailed. Andrew massyn 08:35, 11 November 2006 (UTC)
Def =
- (UK, slang) a twenty-pence piece (so named because they are seven-sided and because of the urban myth that crabs have a seventh leg they keep inside their shell for emergencies).
Etymology[edit]
In SAOB, the national dictionary of the Swedish language, it says that krabba, "crab", is derived from kravla, "crawl", or even krafsa, "scratch". Could anyone check if OED agrees on this?
Peter Isotalo 06:12, 3 September 2008 (UTC)
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Etym 2. crab means crab apple and "crab apple tree". This could be right (I suppose some people somewhere possible use "crab" to mean "crab apple", but the entry at crab apple says etymol crab+apple. So what does "crab" mean? Possibly means "bitter", or "wild". I don't really know. If someone does know, could they add that definition. Then there remains the problem of all those supposed derived terms (with crab grass noticeably missing). What a mess! -- ALGRIF talk 13:31, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
- I've seen crab used to mean crabapple in the context of horticulture (as in, "this cultivar is one of the best of the flowering crabs"). Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me like crab apple is a redirect to crabapple, which has no etymology section, and I don't see anything in the history of either to indicate a recent change. What's more, there's an etymology under Etymology 2 that notes a Swedish dialectal cognate. Where are you getting all this from?
- At any rate: I was under the impression that crab apple is the main term, and that crab is just short for it (which means nothing until someone checks the actual history of the word). If so, the etymology should go to crabapple, and be replaced by "From crabapple". Either way, crabapple/[[crab apple] is the term most are familiar with, so it should have an etymology, if only "From crab (apple)" Chuck Entz (talk) 14:40, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
- I'm getting it from crab#Etymology 2 -- ALGRIF talk 16:10, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
- I was referring to "but the entry at crab apple says etymol crab+apple." Check for yourself- it doesn't. Perhaps you were getting crabgrass mixed up with crabapple? Chuck Entz (talk) 06:08, 15 June 2012 (UTC)
- I'm getting it from crab#Etymology 2 -- ALGRIF talk 16:10, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
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Rfv-sense: To cudgel or beat, as with a crabstick. Should be relatively easy to find, being John Fletcher and allTVdinnerless (talk) 07:53, 1 July 2021 (UTC)
- cited Kiwima (talk) 21:15, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
- RFV-passed Queenofnortheast (talk) 23:08, 6 August 2021 (UTC)