ive of Mid. Eng. crum, crooked, whence the names
Crum and Crump. Ludwig's German Dict. (1715) explains krumm as
"crump, crooked, wry." The name Crook generally has the same meaning,
the Ger. Krummbein corresponding to our Cruikshank or Crookshanks. It
is possible that Glegg and Gleig are Mid. Eng. gleg, skilful, of
Scand. origin.

There are some adjectival surnames which are not immediately
recognizable. Bolt, when not local (Chapter XIII) is for bold, Leaf
is imitative for lief, i.e. dear. Dear itself is of course hopelessly
mixed up with Deer... The timorous-looking Fear is Fr. le fier, the
proud or fierce. Skey is an old form of shy; Bligh is for Blyth;
Hendy and Henty are related to handy, and had in Mid. English the
sense of helpful, courteous--

"Oure hoost tho spak, 'A, sire, ye sholde be hende
And curteys, as a man of youre estat.'"

(D, 1286.)

For Savage we find also the archaic spelling Salvage (Lat.
silvaticus). Curtis is Norman Fr. curteis (courtois). The adjective
garish, now only poetical, but once commonly applied to gaudiness in
dress, has given Gerrish. Quaint, which has so many meanings
intermediate between its etymological sense of known or familiar (Lat.
cognitus) and its present sense of unusual or unfamiliar, survives as
Quint. But Coy is usually local, from Quy (Cambridgeshire).

Orpwood is a corruption of Mid. Eng. orped, bold, warlike. Craske is
an East Anglian word for fat, and Crouse is used in the north for
sprightly, confident. To these we may add Ketch, Kedge, Gedge, from
an East Anglian adjective meaning lively--

"Kygge, or joly, jocundus" (Prompt. Parv.)--

and Spragg, etymologically akin to Spry. Bragg was once used for bold
or brave, without any uncomplimentary suggestion. The New English
Dictionary quotes (c. 1310) from a lyric poem--

"That maketh us so brag and bolde
And biddeth us ben blythe."

Crease is a West-country word for squeamish, but the East Anglian name
Creasey, Cressy, is usually for the local Kersey (Suffolk). The only
solution of Pratt is that it is Anglo-Sax. praett, cunning, adopted
early as a personal name, while Storr, of Scandinavian origin, means
big, strong. It is cognate with Steer, a bull. Devey and Dombey seem
to be diminutive forms of deaf and dumb, still used in dialect in
reference to persons thus afflicted. We find in French and German
surnames corresponding to these very natural nicknames. Cf. Crombie
from Crum (Chapt