krul (Dutch)
Where does "krul" come from?
The Dutch noun 'krul', meaning a curl or decorative flourish, descends directly from Middle Dutch 'crulle'[1]. Its ultimate ancestry reaches back to Proto-Germanic '*kruzlǭ', which referred to that which is curled[1]. Linguists trace this Germanic form further back to a Pre-Germanic base '*grus-', derived from the Proto-Indo-European root '*gurus-', meaning 'twist' or 'curl'[1]. Through this ancient root, the word shares a distant family tie with the Persian word 'gors', which means 'braid of hair'[1].
Open questions
- The intermediate ancestor forms '*kruzlǭ', '*grus-', and '*gurus-' are unattested proto-languages reconstructions based on comparative linguistics. [1]
Full etymology tree
- krul (Dutch), 'a curl shape (such as in hair or writing)'
- inherited crulle (Middle Dutch)
- inherited *kruzlǭ (Proto-Germanic)
- derived *grus- (Pre-Germanic)
- contraction *gurus- (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived *grus- (Pre-Germanic)
- inherited *kruzlǭ (Proto-Germanic)
- inherited crulle (Middle Dutch)
Cognates and doublets
- گرس (Persian)
Descendants and derived words
- kruldistel (Dutch)
- krullebol (Dutch)
- krullen (Dutch)
- krullen (Dutch)
- krullerig (Dutch)
- krullig (Dutch)
- krulvaren (Dutch)
- plaskrul (Dutch)
- kerul (Indonesian)
- krul (Indonesian)
Sources
Updated October 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris