Jump to content

sheep

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]
A domestic sheep
Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis)

Pronunciation

[edit]

Etymology 1

[edit]

Inherited from Middle English schep, schepe, from Anglian Old English sċēp (West Saxon sċēap), from Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą , of unknown origin.

Perhaps from the same Scythian word (compare Ossetian цӕу (cæw, “goat”), Persian چپش (čapiš, “yearling goat”))[1] which was borrowed into Albanian as cjap, sqap (“buck”) and into Slavic (compare Polish cap). After Kroonen, *skēpą is instead from the root of Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to scratch”) via Kluge's law.[2]

See also West Frisian skiep, North Frisian schäip, Dutch schaap, German Schaf), beside Proto-Germanic *keppô (compare Old Norse kjappi (“buck”), dialectal German Kippe (“newborn calf”)).

Alternative forms

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

sheep (countable and uncountable, plural sheep or (nonstandard, humorous or childish) sheeps)

  1. (countable) A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.
  2. (countable, strictly) A member of the domestic species Ovis aries, the most well-known species of Ovis.
  3. (countable) A timid, shy person who is easily led by others.
    Synonyms: lamb, ovine; see also Thesaurus:shy person
  4. (countable, chiefly Christianity, chiefly plural) A religious adherent, a member of a congregation or religious community (compare flock).
    • 1990, Dave Mustaine, "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", Megadeth, Rust in Peace.
      And fools like me, who cross the sea and come to foreign lands / Ask the sheep, for their beliefs do you kill on God's command?
  5. (uncountable) Sheepskin leather.
  6. (countable, speech recognition) A person who is easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with goat.
Synonyms
[edit]
Derived terms
[edit]
Descendants
[edit]
  • Tok Pisin: sipsip (reduplication)
    • → Rotokas: sipisipi
  • → Abenaki: azib (from "a sheep")
  • → Chuukese: siip
  • → Coeur d'Alene: sip
  • → Quiripi: sheeps
Translations
[edit]

See also

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]

Etymology 2

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

sheep

  1. (chiefly humorous) plural of shoop

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, s.vv. "*keppōn", "*skēpan" (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 213, 340
  2. ^ Guus Kroonen (2011), The Proto-Germanic n-stems: a study in diachronic morphophonology [1], Rodopi, →ISBN.

Anagrams

[edit]

Middle English

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

sheep

  1. Alternative form of schep

Scots

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Inherited from Middle English schep, from Old English scēap.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

sheep (plural sheep)

  1. sheep (woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis)

Alternative forms

[edit]

Yola

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

sheep

  1. Alternative form of zheep
    • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 9, page 88:
      Wourlok'd an anooree, lick lhuskès o' sheep.
      Tumbled on one-another, like flocks of sheep.

References

[edit]
  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 88
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=sheep&oldid=83553711"
pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy