Online Etymology Dictionary

creatinine (n.): by 1847, from creatine + chemical suffix -ine (2).
creation (n.): late 14c., "action of creating, a created thing," from Old French creacion (14c., Modern French création) "creation, coming into being," from Latin creationem (nominative creatio) "a creating, a producing," in classical use "an electing, appointment, choice," noun of action from past participle stem of creare (see create). Meaning "that which God has created, the world and all in it" is from 1610s. The native word in the Biblical sense was Old English frum-sceaft. Of fashion costumes, desserts, etc., from 1870s, from French. Creation science is attested by 1970.
creationism (n.): 1847, originally a Christian theological position that God immediately created a soul for each person born; from creation + -ism. As a name for the religious reaction to Darwin, opposed to evolution, it is attested from 1880.
James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin was highly regarded in his day as a churchman and as a scholar. Of his many works, his treatise on chronology has proved the most durable. Based on an intricate correlation of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean histories and Holy writ, it was incorporated into an authorized version of the Bible printed in 1701, and thus came to be regarded with almost as much unquestioning reverence as the Bible itself. Having established the first day of creation as Sunday 23 October 4004 B.C. ... Ussher calculated the dates of other biblical events, concluding, for example, that Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on Monday 10 November 4004 BC, and that the ark touched down on Mt Ararat on 5 May 1491 BC "on a Wednesday". [Craig, G.Y., and E.J. Jones, "A Geological Miscellany," Princeton University Press, 1982.]
creative (adj.): 1670s, "having the quality of creating," from create + -ive. Of literature, "imaginative," from 1816, first attested in Wordsworth. Creative writing is attested from 1907. Related: Creatively.
creativity (n.): 1859, from creative + -ity. An earlier word was creativeness (1800).
creator (n.): c. 1300, "Supreme Being," from Anglo-French creatour, Old French creator (12c., academic and liturgical, alongside popular creere, Modern French créateur), from Latin creator "creator, author, founder," from creatus (see create). Translated in Old English as scieppend (from verb scieppan; see shape (v.)). Not generally capitalized until KJV. General meaning "one who creates" is from 1570s.
creature (n.): late 13c., "anything created," also "living being," from Old French creature (Modern French créature), from Late Latin creatura "thing created," from creatus, past participle of Latin creare "create" (see create). Meaning "anything that ministers to man's comforts" (1610s), after I Tim. iv:4, led to jocular use for "whiskey" (1630s).
creche (n.): "Christmas manger scene," 1792, from French crèche, from Old French cresche (13c.) "crib, manger, stall," ultimately from Frankish or some other Germanic source; compare Old High German kripja, Old English cribb (see crib). Also "a public nursery for infants where they are cared for while their mothers are at work" (1854).
cred (n.): slang shortening of credibility, by 1992.
credence (n.): mid-14c., from Medieval Latin credentia "belief," from Latin credentum (nominative credens), past participle of credere "believe, trust" (see credo).
credential (n.): "that which entitles to credit," 1756, probably a back-formation from credentials. Earlier in English as an adjective, "confirming, corroborating" (late 15c.). As a verb, "provide with credentials," by 1828 (implied in dredentialed).
credentials (n.): "letters entitling the bearer to certain credit or confidence," 1670s, from Medieval Latin credentialis, from credentia (see credence). Probably immediately as a shortening of letters credential (1520s, with French word order); earlier was letter of credence (mid-14c.).
credenza (n.): 1883, "an Italian sideboard," from Italian credenza, literally "belief, credit," from Medieval Latin credentia (see credence).

The same evolution that produced this sense in Italian also worked on the English word credence, which in Middle English also meant "act or process of testing the nature or character of food before serving it as a precaution against poison," a former practice in some royal or noble households. Because of that, in medieval times it also meant "a side-table or side-board on which the food was placed to be tasted before serving;" hence, in later use, "a cupboard or cabinet for the display of plate, etc." These senses fell away in English, and the modern furniture piece, which begins to be mentioned in domestic interiors from c. 1920, took its name from Italian, perhaps as a more elegant word than homely sideboard.
credibility (n.): 1590s, from Medieval Latin credibilitas, from Latin credibilis (see credible). Credibility gap is 1966, American English, in reference to official statements about the Vietnam War.
credible (adj.): "believable," late 14c., from Latin credibilis "worthy to be believed," from credere (see credo). Related: Credibly.
credit (n.): 1520s, from Middle French crédit (15c.) "belief, trust," from Italian credito, from Latin creditum "a loan, thing entrusted to another," from past participle of credere "to trust, entrust, believe" (see credo). The commercial sense was the original one in English (creditor is mid-15c.). Meaning "honor, acknowledgment of merit," is from c. 1600. Academic sense of "point for completing a course of study" is 1904. Movie/broadcasting sense is 1914. Credit rating is from 1958; credit union is 1881, American English.
credit (v.): 1540s, from credit (n.). Related: Credited; crediting.
credit card: 1952 in the modern sense; the phrase was used late 19c. to mean "traveler's check."
creditable (adj.): 1520s, from credit (v.) + -able. Related: Creditably; creditability.
creditor (n.): mid-15c., from Anglo-French creditour, Old French creditour (early 14c.), from Latin creditor "truster, lender," from creditus, past participle of credere (see credo).
credo (n.): late 12c., from Latin, literally "I believe," first word of the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, first person singular present indicative of credere "to believe," from PIE compound *kerd-dhe- "to believe," literally "to put one's heart" (source also of Old Irish cretim, Irish creidim, Welsh credu "I believe," Sanskrit śrad-dhā- "faith"), from PIE root *kerd- (1) "heart" (see heart (n.)). The nativized form is creed. General sense of "formula or statement of belief" is from 1580s.
credulity (n.): early 15c., from Old French credulité (12c.), from Latin credulitatem (nominative credulitas) "easiness of belief, rash confidence," noun of quality from credulus (see credulous).
credulous (adj.): 1570s, from Latin credulus "that easily believes, trustful," from credere "to believe" (see credo). Related: Credulously; credulousness.
Cree: 1744, from phonetic rendering of Canadian French Cris, short for Christinaux, from Ojibwa (Algonquian) *kiristino, originally referring to a group in the Hudson Bay region.
creed (n.): Old English creda "article or statement of Christian belief," from Latin credo "I believe" (see credo). Broadening 17c. to mean "any statement of belief."
creek (n.): mid-15c., creke "narrow inlet in a coastline," altered from kryk (early 13c.; in place names from 12c.), probably from Old Norse kriki "corner, nook," perhaps influenced by Anglo-French crique, itself from a Scandinavian source via Norman. Perhaps ultimately related to crook and with an original notion of "full of bends and turns" (compare dialectal Swedish krik "corner, bend; creek, cove").

Extended to "inlet or short arm of a river" by 1570s, which probably led to use for "small stream, brook" in American English (1620s). Also used there and in Canada, Australia, New Zealand for "branch of a main river," possibly from explorers moving up main rivers and seeing and noting mouths of tributaries without knowing they often were extensive rivers of their own. Slang phrase up the creek "in trouble," often especially "pregnant," first recorded 1941, perhaps originally armed forces slang for "lost while on patrol."
Creek: Indian tribe or confederation, 1725, named for creek, the geographical feature, and abbreviated from Ochese Creek Indians, from the place in Georgia where English first encountered them. Native name is Muskogee, a word of uncertain origin.
creel (n.): early 14c., originally Scottish, of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Middle French crille "latticework."
creep (v.): Old English creopan "to creep" (class II strong verb; past tense creap, past participle cropen), from Proto-Germanic *kreupan (source also of Old Frisian kriapa, Middle Dutch crupen, Old Norse krjupa "to creep"), perhaps from a PIE root *g(e)r- "crooked" [Watkins]. Related: Crept; creeping.
creep (n.): "a creeping motion," 1818, from creep (v.). Meaning "despicable person" is 1935, American English slang, perhaps from earlier sense of "sneak thief" (1914). Creeper "a gilded rascal" is recorded from c. 1600, and the word also was used of certain classes of thieves, especially those who robbed customers in brothels. The creeps "a feeling of dread or revulsion" first attested 1849, in Dickens.
creeper (n.): Old English creopera "one who creeps," agent noun from creep (v.). Also see creep (n.). Meaning "lice" is from 1570s; of certain birds from 1660s; of certain plants from 1620s.
creepy (adj.): 1794, "characterized by creeping," from creep + -y (2). Meaning "having a creeping feeling in the flesh" is from 1831; that of producing such a feeling, the main modern sense, is from 1858. Creepy-crawly is from 1858.
cremate (v.): 1874, a back-formation from cremation. Related: Cremated; cremating.
cremation (n.): 1620s, from Latin cremationem (nominative crematio), noun of action from past participle stem of cremare "to burn, consume by fire" (also used of the dead), from PIE *krem-, extended form of root *ker- (4) "heat, fire" (see carbon).
crematoria (n.): plural of Modern Latin crematorium (see crematorium).
crematorium (n.): 1880, from Latin cremator-, stem of cremare (see cremation) + -orium (see -ory).
crematory (n.): 1876, the nativized form of crematorium. From 1884 as an adjective.
creme (n.): 1845, from French crème (see cream (n.)). For crème brûlée, see brulee.
creme de la creme (n.): "elite, finest flower of society," 1848, from French crème de la crème, literally "the cream of the cream" (see cream (n.)).
crenel (n.): "open space on an embattlement," early 14c., from Old French crenel (12c.), apparently a diminutive of cren "notch" (see cranny).
crenelate (v.): early 14c., from French créneler, from crénelé (12c.); see crenel. Sometimes also crenellate; the double -l- seems to be from a presumed Latin *crenella as a diminutive of crena. Related: Crenelated (1823), also crenellated; crenellation (1849). Earlier formes of the past participle adjective included carneled.
crenelated (adj.): 1823, past participle adjective from crenelate.
creole (n.): c. 1600, from French créole (17c.), from Spanish criollo "person native to a locality," from Portuguese crioulo, diminutive of cria "person (especially a servant) raised in one's house," from criar "to raise or bring up," from Latin creare "to produce, create" (see create).

The exact sense varies with local use. Originally with no connotation of color or race; Fowler (1926) writes: "Creole does not imply mixture of race, but denotes a person either of European or (now rarely) of negro descent born and naturalized in certain West Indian and American countries." In U.S. use, applied to descendants of French and Spanish settlers in Louisiana from at least 1792. Of languages, from 1879. As an adjective, from 1748.
creosote (n.): 1835, from German Kreosot, coined 1832 by its discoverer, German-born natural philosopher Carl Ludwig, Baron Reichenbach (1788-1869), from Greek kreo-, comb. form of kreas "flesh" (see raw) + soter "preserver," from soizein "save, preserve." So called because it was used as an antiseptic.
crepe (n.): 1797, from French crêpe, from Old French crespe (14c.), from Latin crispa, fem. of crispus "curled, wrinkled" (see crisp (adj.)). Meaning "small, thin pancake" is from 1877. Crepe paper is first attested 1895.
crepitation (n.): 1650s, noun of action from Latin crepitare "to crackle," frequentative of crepare "to crack, creak" (see raven). In medical use from 1834.
crepitus (n.): c. 1810, from Latin crepitus "a rattling, creaking;" another word for crepitation, which is from the same root.
crept: past tense and past participle of creep (v.).
crepuscular (adj.): figurative use from 1660s; literal use from 1755, from Latin crepusculum "twilight, dusk," from creper "dusky," which is of unknown origin. Especially of evening twilight.
crepuscule (n.): late 14c., from Old French crépuscule (13c.), from Latin crepusculum.