Don't be misled: the -are and -ire endings mark different conjugations (per my other comment, a Latin "crespare" would have become "créper" in French, which mea

Don't be misled: the -are and -ire endings mark different conjugations (per my other comment, a Latin "crespare" would have become "créper" in French, which means "frizz" or "crimp" and is thus almost certainly cognate to your Italian word, but not to the "crespit" of the OP).