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sheet

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʃiːt/[1]

sheet1 cloth, paper

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shete, inherited from Old English sċēte (West Saxon sċīete, “cloth, covering”),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *skautjōn.[3][2] It is related to Old English sċēat “corner, region, lap, cloth”, which is cognate with Dutch schoot, German Schoß “lap” and Gothic skauts “hem”.[3][4] The Germanic base also gave shoot, one of whose senses was “to project”.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A broad piece of cloth used as a covering: about 725.[6]

Semantic evolution

A winding-sheet is from about 1000, and a sheet as bedding from about 1250.[6][4] A piece of paper for writing or printing is from about 1500,[2][6] any broad, thin surface of metal, water and so on from the 1590s,[2] and a sweep of falling rain from the 1690s.[2] A newspaper is from 1749.[2] Between the sheets is from the 1590s and white as a sheet from 1751.[2][6] Sheet lightning is from 1794 and sheet music from 1857.[2] The verb, to cover with a sheet, is from 1606 in MWU.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – a covering cloth.[6]
  • c. 1250 – a bedsheet.[6]
  • c. 1500 – a sheet of paper.[2]
  • 1590s – any broad thin surface.[2]
  • 1749 – a newspaper.[2]
  • 1857 – sheet music.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A large rectangular piece of cotton or linen cloth used on a bed.
  2. A thin flat piece of paper, glass, metal or the like.
  3. A broad, continuous surface or mass: a sheet of ice, a sheet of rain.
  4. A newspaper, especially a tabloid.

Verb

  1. To cover or wrap in a sheet.
  2. Of rain, to fall heavily.

sheet2 rope

Etymology

The rope is Middle English shete, shortened from Old English sceatline “sheet-line”,[2][3] from sceata “lower corner of a sail, piece of cloth”, from the same Germanic source as the first word.[2][3][7] Old Norse skaut and Dutch schoot also mean a rope fastened to a sail.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A rope attached to a lower corner of a sail: 1294–95 in Barnhart, the late 13th century in Etymonline.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Three sheets in the wind, drunk, is recorded from 1812, and two sheets in the wind from 1813;[2] it pictures a sailing boat whose sheets have come loose, so that it lurches.[2][5] The verb sheet home, to set a sail flat by hauling on the sheets, is from the late 18th century.[8]

Timeline

  • 1294 – a sail rope.[3]
  • 1812 – three sheets in the wind.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (sailing) A rope or chain attached to a lower corner of a sail, used to control it.

Usage notes

The first part of sheet anchor, an anchor kept for emergencies, appears to be a different word of unknown origin.[2]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press