Crunning (pronounced khrun-ing)
In high-performance sports training, simultaneously
running and crying.
Circa 2020: the construct was cr(y) + (r)unning.
Cromiting (pronounced krom-et-ing)
In high-performance sports training, simultaneously
running, crying & vomiting.
Circa 2020: the construct was cr(y) + (v)omit + (runn)ing.
The verb cry was from the thirteenth century Middle
English crien, from the Old French crier (to announce publicly, proclaim,
scream, shout) (from which Medieval Latin gained crīdō (to cry out, shout, publish, proclaim)). The noun is from
Middle English crie, from the Old
French cri & crïee. The origin of the Old
French & Middle Latin word is uncertain.
It may be of Germanic origin, from the Frankish krītan (to cry, cry out, publish), from the Proto-Germanic krītaną (to cry out, shout), from the
primitive Indo-European greyd- (to
shout) and thus cognate with the Saterland Frisian kriete (to cry), the Dutch krijten
(to cry) & krijsen (to shriek), the
Low German krieten (to cry, call out,
shriek”), the German kreißen (to cry
loudly, wail, groan) and the Gothic kreitan
(to cry, scream, call out) and related to the Latin gingrītus (the cackling of geese), the Middle Irish grith (a cry), the Welsh gryd (a scream), the Persian گریه (gerye)
(to cry) and the Sanskrit क्रन्दन (krandana) (cry, lamentation).
Some etymologists however suggest a connection with the Medieval Latin quiritō (to wail, shriek), also of uncertain
origin, possibly from the Latin queror
(to complain) through the form although the phonetic and semantic developments have
proved elusive; the alternative Latin source is thought to be a variant of quirritare (to squeal like a pig), from quis, an onomatopoeic rendition of
squeaking. An ancient folk etymology
understood it as "to call for the help of the Quirites (the Roman policemen).
In the thirteenth century, the meaning extended to encompass "shed
tears", previously described as “weeping”, “to weep” etc and by the
sixteenth century cry had displace weep in the conversational vernacular, under
the influence of the notion of "utter a loud, vehement, inarticulate sound". The phrase “to cry (one's) eyes out” (weep
inordinately) is documented since 1704 but weep, wept etc remained a favorite
of poets and writers.
Vomit as a verb (the early fifteenth century Middle
English vomiten) was an adoption from
the Latin vomitus (past participle of
vomitāre) and was developed from the
fourteenth century noun vomit (act of expelling contents of the stomach through
the mouth), from the Anglo-French vomit, from the Old French vomite, from the Latin vomitus, from vomō & vomitare (to
vomit often), frequentative of vomere
(to puke, spew forth, discharge), from the primitive Indo-European root wemh & weme- (to spit, vomit), source also of the Ancient Greek emein (to vomit) & emetikos (provoking sickness), the
Sanskrit vamati (he vomits), the
Avestan vam- (to spit), the
Lithuanian vemti (to vomit) and the
Old Norse væma (seasickness). It was cognate with the Old Norse váma (nausea, malaise) and the Old
English wemman (to defile). The use of the noun to describe the matter
disgorged during vomiting dates from the late fourteenth century and is in
common use in the English-speaking world although Nancy Mitford (1904–1973 and
the oldest of the Mitford sisters) in the slim volume Noblesse Oblige: an
Enquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy (1956)
noted “vomit” was “non-U” and the “U” word was “sick”, something perhaps to bear
in mind after, if not during, vomiting.
Run was from the Middle English runnen & rennen (to
run), an alteration (influenced by the past participle runne, runnen & yronne)
of the Middle English rinnen (to run),
from the Old English rinnan & iernan (to run) and the Old Norse rinna (to run), both from the Proto-Germanic
rinnaną (to run) and related to rannijaną (to make run), from the Proto-Indo-European
hreyh- (to boil, churn”. It was cognate with the Scots rin (to run), the West Frisian rinne (to walk, march), the Dutch rennen (to run, race), the Alemannic
German ränne (to run), the German rennen (to run, race) & rinnen (to flow), the Danish rende (to run), the Swedish ränna (to run) and the Icelandic renna (to flow). The non-Germanic cognates includes the Albanian
rend (to run, run after). The
alternative spelling in Old English was ærning
(act of one who or that which runs, rapid motion on foot) and that endured
as a literary form until the seventeenth century. The adjective running (that runs, capable of
moving quickly) was from the fourteenth century and was from rennynge; as the present-participle
adjective from the verb run, it replaced the earlier erninde, from the Old English eornende
from ærning. The meaning "rapid, hasty, done on the
run" dates from circa 1300 while the sense of "continuous, carried on
continually" was from the late fifteenth century. The language is replete with phrases including
“run” & “running” and run has had a most productive history: according to
one source the verb alone has 645 meanings and while that definitional net may
be widely cast, all agree the count is well into three figures.
The suffix –ing was from the Middle English -ing, from the Old English –ing & -ung (in the sense of the modern -ing,
as a suffix forming nouns from verbs), from the Proto-West Germanic –ingu & -ungu, from the Proto-Germanic –ingō
& -ungō. It was cognate with the Saterland
Frisian -enge, the West Frisian –ing, the Dutch –ing, The Low German –ing &
-ink, the German –ung, the Swedish -ing and the Icelandic –ing;
All the cognate forms were used for the same purpose as the English -ing).
The portmanteau words crunning (simultaneously
running and crying) & cromiting (simultaneously running, crying & vomiting)
are techniques used in strength and conditioning training by athletes seeking
to improve endurance. The basis of the
idea is that at points where the mind usually persuades a runner or other
athlete to pause or stop, the body is still capable of continuing and thus
signals like crying or vomiting should be ignored in the manner of the phrase “passing
through the pain barrier”. The ides is “just
keep going no matter what” and that is potentially dangerous so such extreme
approaches should be pursued only under professional supervision. Earlier (circa 2015), crunning was a blend of
crawl + running, a type of physical training which was certainly self-descriptive
and presumably best practiced on other than hard surfaces; it seems not to have
caught on. Crunning & cromiting came
to wider attention when discussed by members of the Australian Women’s Rugby
Sevens team which won gold at the Commonwealth Games (Birmingham, UK,
July-August 2022). When interviewed, a
squad member admitted crunning & cromiting were “brutal” methods of
training but admitted both were a vital part of the process by which they
achieved the level of strength & fitness (mental & physical) which
allowed them to succeed.
Although visually similar (spelling & symptoms), crunning & cromiting
should not be confused with "scromiting" (a portmanteau of “screaming” and “vomiting”)
a word coined in the early twenty-first century as verbal shorthand for cannabinoid
hyperemesis syndrome (CHS). Hyperemesis
is extreme, persistent nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, a kind of acute
morning sickness and CHS presents in much the same way. The recreational use of cannabis was hardly
new but CHS was novel and the medical community has speculated the reaction induced
only in some users may be caused either by their specific genetic differences
or something added to or bred into certain strains of weed although the
condition remains both rare and geographically distributed. The long-term effects are unknown except for
damage to tooth enamel caused by the stomach acid in the vomit.
An athletic pursuit probably
sometimes not dissimilar to the exacting business of crunning & cromiting is
the Beer Mile, conducted usually on a standard 400 m (¼ mile) track as a 1 mile
(1.6 km) contest of both running & drinking speed. Each of the four laps begins with the competitor
drinking one can (12 fl oz (US) (355 ml)) of beer, followed by a full lap, the
process repeated three times. The rules
have been defined by the governing body which also publishes the results,
including the aggregates of miles covered and beers drunk. Now a sporting institution, it has encouraged
imitators and there are a number of variations, each with its own rules. The holder of this most illustrious world record
is a three-time champion, Canadian Corey Bellemore (b 1994), who set the mark
of 4:28.1 on 23 October 2021.
Some variations of the beer mile simply increase the
volume or strength of the beer consumed and a few of these are dubbed Chunder
Mile (“chunder” being circa 1950s Australia & New Zealand slang for
vomiting and of disputed origin) on the basis that vomiting is more likely the
more alcohol is consumed. For some however, even this wasn’t sufficiently debauched and there were events which demanded
a (cold) meat pie be enjoyed with a jug of (un-chilled) beer (a jug typically 1140
ml (38.5 fl oz (US)) at the start of each of the four laps. Predictably, these events were most
associated with orientation weeks at universities, a number still conducted as late as the 1970s and the best documented seems to have been those at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Helpfully, at this time, it was the site of
the country’s medical school, thereby providing students with practical
experience of both symptoms and treatments for the inevitable consequences. Whether the event was invented in Dunedin isn’t
known but, given the nature of males aged 17-21 probably hasn’t much changed
over the millennia, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn similar competitions,
localized to suit culinary tastes, have been contested by the drunken youth of many places in centuries
past. As it was, even in Dunedin, times
were changing and in 1972, the Chunder Mile was banned “…because of the dangers of asphyxiation and ruptured esophaguses.”
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