The Machine Is Named After the Bird
A crane is a tall wading bird and a lifting machine. The machine took the bird's name because of the shape of its long neck.
A crane is a tall long-necked bird, and also a machine for lifting heavy loads. The machine borrowed the bird's name for its silhouette — a long jib rising from a body, like a neck from a standing bird — and the same comparison was made independently in Greek, Latin, German and Dutch, so the metaphor is not an English invention. To *crane* your neck, stretching it to see, completes the circle back to the bird.
- A long-necked bird. *A flock of cranes.*
- A lifting machine. *A tower crane.*
- To stretch the neck. *He craned to see.*
- Cranefly — the long-legged insect. *A cranefly.*
- Cranberry — named from the bird too. *Cranberry sauce.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | crane | A tall crane. |
| Plural | cranes | Two cranes. |
| Verb | crane | Crane your neck. |
| Past | craned | She craned forward. |
| Compound | cranefly | A cranefly. |
- Cranes migrate in large flocks.Birds.
- The crane lifted the beam into place.Machine.
- He craned his neck to see the stage.Verb.
Other words from the crane
- Cranefly — named for its long legs
- Cranberry — from German *Kranbeere*, crane berry
- Geranium — from Greek for crane, after the seed pod's shape
- Pedigree — from French *pied de grue*, crane's foot, the family-tree symbol
- Crane in machinery — from the same silhouette
Old English *cran*, from a Germanic root shared with German *Kranich*. The machine sense is recorded from the 1300s.
Is pedigree really from crane's foot?
Yes. Old French pied de grue described the three-line branching mark used in genealogies, which resembles a crane's footprint.
Why is the lifting machine called a crane?
Because its long jib rising from a base resembles a crane's neck. The comparison appears in several European languages.