cruimh f /krˠɪw/

[noun] grub

[noun] maggot

[noun] worm

Irish dictionary online

A first Irish word today and this post has a connection with the previous.

The Irish cruimh can mean “grub”, “maggot” or “worm” and is from the Indo-European root *kʷr̥mis which meant more or less the same thing. As such, it is cognate with many other semantically similar words throughout Europe and Asia. In the Celtic languages there is the Welsh pryf. Further afield there is the Sanskrit कृमि (kṛ́mi). The Lithuanian kirmis is related to cruimh and this brings us closer to our connection.

The Proto-Slavic root that meant “worm” was *čьrvь and this is the source of the Russian червь, Ukrainian черв’як, Bulgarian червей, Polish czerw and Czech červ.

This root also produced the word for “red” in many of these languages. This is because the Polish cochineal (Porphyrophora polonica) produces maggoty, wormy larvae and this insect was used to produce a red dye.