scion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sioun, also ciun and scion,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman cioun, also ciun and sioun, and Old French cion, also sion, now French scion.^[5][4][6] Beyond French the origin is unsettled.^[6][7] The OED thinks it probably comes from an unattested noun borrowed from a Germanic cognate of chithe, with the suffix French -on,^[5] and Dictionary.com, Partridge and the Middle English Dictionary also take a Germanic source, through Frankish *kī- or *kith.^[8][9][2] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Germanic *kīþô (“sprout”), from Proto-Indo-European *geye- (“to split open, sprout”),^[1][4] and the kin include Old English cīþ (“sprout, shoot”) and Old High German chīnan (“to sprout”).^[3][8] The American Heritage Dictionary says only "possibly" Germanic.^[10] Barnhart finds that neither a Germanic source nor Old French scier (“to saw”) fits the forms,^[6] and Etymonline reports that the OED rejects the second,^[4] which Skeat had proposed;^[11] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English call the origin unknown.^[7][12] Hoad suggests an alteration of Old French chion, and Etymonline explains the -c- as unetymological, apparently influenced by Latin scindō (“to cut”).^[13][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A branch, twig or young shoot of a plant: about 1335, in the Land of Cokaygne, a text the OED and the Middle English Dictionary date in composition to before 1300.^[5][2] Barnhart gives before 1300 and Etymonline about 1300.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

In early use the word covered any branch, twig or young shoot, and also a runner or a young plant.^[5][2] The narrower sense "cutting for grafting" belongs to the French word only from the 17th century,^[5] and Johnson (1755) defined it that way, quoting The Winter's Tale: "we marry a gentle scion to the wildest stock".^[14] The figurative use came early: the Wycliffite Bible has something likened to a branch about 1384,^[5] and the sense "descendant, heir" is in the OED from about 1390.^[5][2] Barnhart, by contrast, dates it 1814, the Shorter Oxford calls it rare before the 19th century, and Hoad puts it in that century.^[6][7][13] Weekley compares the figurative use of imp, stock and German Sprössling.^[15] The feminine scioness of the early 20th century is jocular.^[7][4]

Timeline

• c. 1335 – a branch, twig or young shoot.^[5][2]
• c. 1384 – something likened to a branch or shoot.^[5]
• c. 1390 – a descendant, an heir.^[5][2] Barnhart dates this sense 1814.^[6]
• early 20th century – scioness, a female heir, jocular.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shoot or twig cut for grafting or planting: She bound the apple scion to the rootstock.^[3][16][7]
2. A descendant or heir, especially of a wealthy or noble family: the young scion of a banking house.^[3][16][5]
3. (obsolete) A branch, twig or young shoot of a plant generally.^[5][2]

Word family

• scioness

Related words

• chithe
• chine
• chink

Usage notes

In the plant sense American English also spells it cion.^[7][3][17] Collins records a variant sient.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press