croup

Etymology 1

From Middle English croupe, from Old French croupe (“rump, body”), from Old Norse kroppr (“body, trunk, mass”), from Proto-Germanic *kruppaz (“body, mass, heap, collection, crop”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to curve, bend, crawl”). More at crupper, doublet of croupe, group, and crop.

noun

1. The top of the rump of a horse or other quadruped.
   The guib [a kind of antelope] is of the mean dimensions, or four feet and a half in total length, and two and a half high at the shoulders, but rather higher at the croup. 1835, Charles Frederick Partington, The British cyclopædia of natural history

Etymology 2

From Scots croup, croop (“the croup”), from Scots croup, crowp, croop (“to croak, speak hoarsely, murmur, complain”), from Old Scots crowp, crope, croap (“to call loudly, croak”), alteration of rowp, roup, roip, rope (“to cry, cry hoarsely, roop”), from Middle English roupen, ropen, from Old English hrōpan (“to shout, proclaim; cry out, scream, howl”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōpaną (“to shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *ker-, *kor- (“to caw, crow”). More at roop.

verb

1. (obsolete outside dialects) To croak, make a hoarse noise.

noun

1. (pathology) An infectious illness of the larynx, especially in young children, causing respiratory difficulty.