An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Kram

by Friedrich Kluge

Kram, masculine, ‘retail trade,’ from Middle High German krâm, masculine, properly ‘stretched cloth, marquee,’ especially ‘covering of a stall,’ then the ‘stall’ itself (also called krâme, feminine), ‘trade wares’; corresponding to Dutch kraam, feminine, ‘retail shop, wares,’ then, strangely enough, ‘child-bed,’ which must have originated in the meaning ‘stretched cloth,’ as the covering for the bed. A specifically German word introduced into the North by commerce (Icelandic kram, neuter, ‘wares,’ Lithuanian krómas). ‘Tent-cloth’ may have been the primary meaning of Gothic *krêma-.