sharpen

Etymology

It is formed from English sharp + -en, with the verb-forming suffix that also makes harden and soften;^[2][3][4][5] in Middle English it was sharpenen.^[3][6][7] Middle English already had a shorter verb sharpen, the modern verb sharp, formed from the adjective and partly continuing Old English scerpan (“to score, scarify”), West Saxon gescirpan.^[3][7] The adjective is from Old English scearp, from Proto-Germanic *skarpaz (“cutting”), from Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to cut”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make more acute or intense, of a person's wits or zeal: about 1450, in Mirk's Festial.^[2] Etymonline dates a sense "intensify" to the late 14th century,^[3] and the Middle English Dictionary quotes a sharpened reed from before 1450.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, to put an edge or a point on a blade or tool, is dated by Etymonline to the mid-15th century,^[3] while the OED's first record is in Palsgrave's French–English dictionary of 1530.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "to make keen; to edge; to point" first, quoting the Bible's Israelites who went down to the Philistines to sharpen their ploughshares.^[8] The figurative senses follow those of the adjective: to make a liquid sour (1675), to make a law or punishment more severe (1709, compare German schärfen), to make pain worse (1768) and to make the features thin (1835).^[2] An older sense, to goad someone on to attack, is recorded from 1483 to 1733.^[2] In music, to sharpen a note is to raise its pitch, recorded from 1824;^[2][9] Collins notes that American and Canadian English usually say sharp instead.^[9] The phrase sharpen one's pencil, to get ready for work or to improve one's work, is American English from 1957.^[3][2] In Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire dialect a horse was sharpened by roughing its shoes against frost, and the verb also meant to urge on.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – to make more acute (the wits, zeal), in Mirk's Festial.^[2]
• 1483 – to goad on to attack (obsolete by 1733).^[2]
• 1530 – to put a sharp edge or point on a blade or tool.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the mid-15th century.^[3]
• 1609 – figurative use, in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.^[2]
• 1675 – to make a liquid sour or bitter.^[2]
• 1709 – to make a law or punishment more severe.^[2]
• 1768 – to make pain or suffering worse.^[2]
• 1824 – in music, to raise the pitch of a note.^[2]
• 1897 – in Yorkshire dialect, to rough a horse's shoes.^[2][10]
• 1957 – sharpen one's pencil, to get ready for work.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give a keen edge or a fine point to something: She sharpened the chisel on an oilstone.^[6][9][2]
2. To make or become sharper in other senses: clearer, more acute or more intense: Hunger sharpened his attention.^[6][9][2]
3. To make a law or penalty more severe.^[6][2]
4. To make a taste more tart or pungent.^[6][2]
5. In music, to raise the pitch of a note, especially by a semitone.^[9][2]
6. sharpen one's pencil: to prepare to work, or to revise and improve one's work.^[2][4]

Word family

• sharpener
• presharpen
• resharpen

Related words

• sharp

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c 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)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)