ONlwSG

creapall m. [ˈkʰɾʲɛʰpəɫ̪], gen. creapaill -[iʎ̪], ‘hindrance etc.; garter’. On the supposition that ON *lang-helda ‘a hobble between the front and back legs’ yields forms such as langal in Irish (s.v. langaid), Marstrander (1915a, 137–39) surmises that an Old Norse compound *krapp-helda in the sense ‘hobble between the forelegs’ (with ON krappr adj. ‘narrow, confined, restricted’ + helda ‘hold, fastening’ 

Cf. -heldi nt. (de Vries 1962).

) lies behind EG crapall (with voiceless p) ‘fetter, bond; act of binding, cramping, fettering’; so also eDIL^˄ and Vendryes 1996; McDonald (2009, 377) also links SG creapall with *krapp-helda. On the other hand, HSS (1828) derives SG creapaill ‘to stop, hinder, stay’ and MacBain (1911) SG creapall vn ‘entangling, hindering’ (via Irish) from Eng. cripple (with its variants creeple, cruppel and crupple, cf. MEng. crepul, cripil(l), crup(p)el etc.).

EG crapall, also crepall, yields the derivatives craplaiḋ, creplaiḋ vb ‘binds, fetters’ and crapail(l)te, crepailte adj. ‘bound, fettered’; in Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, cf.

Irish
Lhuyd 1707: creapall ‘entangling’: craiplighthear ‘they are entangled’; creaplaim ‘to stop or stay, to hinder’; O’Brien 1768: crapluighim ‘to fetter, to bind’; creapal ‘entangling’: see crapluighim; creaplaim ‘to stop or stay, to hinder’; O’Reilly 1817: crapluighim ‘I fetter, bind’; creapal entangling’; creaplaim ‘I stop, stay, entangle’; Dinneen 1947: crapall ‘act of fettering etc.’; crapluighim ‘I fetter etc.’; crapluighte ‘fettered etc.’; creapailte ‘stumbling; fettered etc.’; creapalta ‘idem’; creapall, creapluighim etc., see crapall, crapluighim etc.; Hamilton 1974, 261: creapalta [k´raʰpəLtə], [k´r´aʰpɑ̆lhtə] ‘crippled’, Tory Island; Ó Dónaill 1977: craplaigh ‘to fetter; cripple’; creapall = crapall ‘fetter; disablement’; Wagner 1979, 323: creapailte ‘crippled’, Teelin; Mhac an Fhailigh 1980, 228: creapall ‘act of crippling’, Co. Mayo; Lúcás 1986: creapalta ‘crippled’; creaplachán ‘cripple’, Rosguill; Uí Bheirn 1989: crupálann ‘struggles along’, Teelin.

Professor Seòsamh Watson (pers. comm.) reports meeting Ir. crapall ‘impediment’ in south-west Donegal, where an informant used phrases such as ní bheadh crapall ort a dhéanamh ‘there would be nothing to stop you’, and that certainly Eng. cripple(d) would enter the mind of today’s bilingual speakers.

Scottish Gaelic
Shaw 1780: creapal ‘entangling’; creapalam ‘to stop, hinder, stay’; HSS 1828: creapall ‘entangling’, citing Lhuyd 1707; creapaill ‘to stop, hinder, stay’; M^cAlpine 1832: creapal [kremp’-all] ‘to hinder’, citing HSS; MacEachen 1842: creapall ‘lump, let or hindrance’; Dwelly 1911: creapall ‘entangling, stopping, hindering; lump, let, hindrance’; cripleach ‘cripple’; criplich ‘to cripple’; MacLennan 1925: creapall ‘lump; entanglement, hindrance’; Dieckhoff 1932: creapall [krè*hbəL] ‘lump’.

Lhuyd’s (1700, 161 XVII. 46: Strathspey) kraple ‘garter’ is interpreted by his editors as representing SG cnèibille (p. 248), with initial cn- for /kr/ + a long nasalised stressed vowel. However, kraple may simply represent SG crapall. 

Cf. Lhuyd’s (p. 127 VIII.50) kappwl ‘mare’ A[rgyllshire] (SG capall); (p. 165 XVIII.93) stapple ‘hinge’ I[nverness-shire] (SG stapall, cf. MScots stapil ‘a fastening’ (DOST^˄)); (p. 193 XXVI.7) tiempyl ‘temple’ A., I. (SG teampall); (p. 193 XXVI.9) shâppel ‘chappel’ A., I. (SG seapail, seipeil); but (p. 164 XVIII.46) stȧbyl ‘stable’ A., I. (SG stàball).

The form cnèibille may have suggested itself on the basis of, firstly, forms such as cnèibeilt(e) ‘garter’, q.v., and, secondly, MacDomhnuill’s (1741) créabille ‘idem’. While Shaw’s (1780) creabille and perhaps HSS’s (1828) creabuill may be imperfect renditions of MacDomhnuill’s créabille (so also perhaps, in part at least, Armstrong’s (1825) and MacLeod & Dewar’s (1831) creaball), Armstrong’s creapull and MacBain’s (1911) creapall appear to be variant forms of Lhuyd’s kraple. A distinction between SG crapall, creapall on the one hand and cnèibeilt(e) on the other is at least suggested by the contrastive listings creabuill ~ cnàimh-built (HSS 1828) and creaball ~ cnàimh-built (MacLeod & Dewar 1831).

Whatever the precise form of the original reflex of SG crapall, creapall in the sense ‘garter’, it has since been confused and/or conflated with SG cnèibeilt(e), q.v. For example, for ‘garter’ Dwelly (1911) lists SG cneaball; cneapailt: Skye and Lewis for cneaball; creabail: see cnèaball; creabuill; and creapull. An Stòr-Dàta (1993) lists SG cneabailt; cneaball; cneapailt; cneapall; cneibeilt; and crèibeilt. AFB^˄ lists SG cneapall /krʲɛ̃hbəL/; and cneipeilt /krʲɛ͂hbaldʲ/.

Manx
Thomson 1978, 97; Kelly 1991^˄: cribbyl ‘garter’.

A derivation of the above forms from MEng. crepul etc. is plausible phonetically, although the variation crap-, creap-, crup-, crip- may also be due to analogy with similar variation in Ir. and SG crap ‘to shrink etc.’, s.v. crap. For Mx cribbyl, cf. Mx cabbyl ~ Ir. and SG capall ‘horse’ (< Lat. *cappillus (Thurneysen 1975, 567)). The semantic development is less clear, but cf. Hiberno-English cripple ‘a wooden frame or trestle serving as a rest for logs; a saw-horse’ (≈Moylan 1996, 83: Kilkenny), Ulster-Scots (pl.) cripples ‘wooden frames used to support scaffolding; a horizontal frame laid over a cart for carrying hay’ (Macafee 1996), Eng. dial. cripple ‘a frame of wood to support scaffolding’ (EDDo^˄), Eng. cripple ‘a device or type of bracket attached to each of a series of two or more ladders to support a platform between them ...; (sometimes also) the ladders, brackets, and platform assembled in this way, viewed as a single entity’ (OED^˄, s.v., I.4), and Mx criggyl ‘cripples’ 

?As an extension of Mx criggyl ‘cripple’ (Cregeen 1835; Y Kelly 1866, after Cregeen; Kelly 1991^˄), which seems to be a conflation of Eng. crick (cf. Anglo-Manx crick ‘twist’ (Moore 1924)) and Eng. cripple; not the same word as Mx cryggil, cryggyl ‘risk, danger’ < Lat. perīculum (> EG peiriacail, peirical > Ir. priacal).

(Cregeen 1835; Kelly 1991^˄).