shoal

shoal¹ shallow, shallow place

Etymology

The word for a shallow place goes back to the adjective inherited from Middle English shold (“shallow”), in Scots schald,^[5][6][7] inherited from Old English sceald (“shallow”),^[2][8][3][6] which Old English records only in place names.^[9][6] The noun is an absolute use of the adjective,^[8][9] sholde in Middle English,^[5] and the final -d disappeared in the 16th century.^[2][10] The Old English adjective comes from Proto-Germanic *skaldaz,^[1][6] and according to the OED shallow is a parallel formation differing only in the suffix,^[8] though Ayto finds the link between them unclear.^[1] The OED tentatively suggests that the base *skal- meant "thin layer", as in the word behind shale.^[8] Etymonline gives *skala-, of uncertain origin, with Swedish skäll (“thin”), Low German schol and Frisian skol (“not deep”);^[2] the OED finds the Low German word remarkably close in sound and meaning, but of dubious etymology.^[8] Barnhart compares German schal (“stale, insipid”),^[10] a comparison the OED rejects for its sense.^[8] Wiktionary reconstructs *skalidaz, perhaps a past participle of *skaljaną (“to dry up, become shallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to dry out”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of water, not deep: Barnhart dates Old English sceald to 839,^[10] and the OED's first record is in Birch's Cartularium Saxonicum.^[8] Bosworth–Toller quotes it from charters, as in út on scealdan ford, out to the shallow ford.^[11] The noun, a shallow place, appears as schald about 1375 in Barnhart,^[10] and before 1400 in the OED, in Coer de Lyon.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The adjective for shallow water came to name the place itself, a shallow or a sandbank, by before 1400.^[8][9] Shakespeare's Macbeth has the noun figuratively,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford notes a sense of hidden danger or difficulty, usually in the plural.^[9] The verb, of water becoming shallower, is recorded from 1574,^[8][7][10] and sailors used it from 1694 for passing into shallower water as shown by soundings.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "shallow; obstructed or incumbered with banks".^[12] It is now archaic, Scots or North American dialect.^[9] In East Anglian dialect a shoal furrow was a shallow furrow, and in West Yorkshire a shoal was a flood of water in meadows beside a stream.^[13] A shoaler was a sailor in the coastal trade, by 1891.^[2]

Timeline

• 839 – sceald, shallow, in Old English.^[10][9]
• c. 1315 – adverb, to or at a slight depth; schealde.^[8]
• c. 1375 – noun, a shallow place, as schald.^[10] The OED's first record is from before 1400.^[8]
• before 1398 – adjective shold, of water, in Trevisa's Bartholomew.^[5]
• 1414 – noun sholde.^[10][5]
• c. 1554 – the form shoal, as an adjective.^[7][10]
• 1574 – verb, of water, to become shallow.^[8][7][10]
• before 1616 – noun, figurative, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[8]
• 1694 – verb, nautical, to pass into shallower water.^[8]
• 1728 – adjective, figurative, of intellect.^[8]
• 1859 – verb, to make a piece of water shallow.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place where a sea, river or other body of water is shallow.^[14][7][8]
2. A sandbank, sandbar or rocky area in water, especially one that shows at low water.^[14][7][9]
3. A hidden danger or difficulty, usually in the plural.^[9][8]

Verb

1. To become shallow or shallower: The channel shoals quickly past the old pier.^[14][7][8]
2. To make water shallower, or to block it with shoals.^[14][7][8]
3. (nautical) To sail into shallower water.^[14][7][8]

Adjective

1. (archaic or dialect) Not deep; shallow.^[14][7][9]

Word family

• shoaly
• shoaliness
• shoalness

shoal² school of fish, large number

Etymology

The word for a school of fish is probably borrowed from Middle Dutch schōle (“troop, multitude, flock, shoal of fish”) or Middle Low German schōle,^{[3][9][6][15][16][1]} which had already been taken over as school².^[6][1][8] The OED calls this re-adoption the simpler hypothesis, and explains the initial sound as an English substitution for the Dutch one, or as coming from Flemish dialects that already had it.^[8][15] Merriam-Webster, Barnhart and Collins instead derive it, through an assumed Middle English *shole, from Old English scolu (“band, troop, multitude”),^[7][10][14] and the OED allows that the Old English word may have lived on unrecorded in nautical use.^[8] Etymonline leaves the choice open and calls the origin uncertain.^[2] Weekley saw a special use of the shallow-water word, suggested by Dutch school, and compared French banc, used in French of both.^[17] Its cognates include Old Saxon scola (“multitude”) and West Frisian skoal.^[8][10] Köbler sets up Proto-Germanic *skulō (“troop”), comparing Proto-Indo-European *skel- (“to cut”),^[18] and Barnhart thinks of an original meaning of "division".^[10] The OED's revised entry for the fish word spelled school now rejects this and traces the Germanic forms ultimately to Latin schola.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large number of fish swimming together, and a crowd of people: the OED has both from 1579, the second in Spenser's Shepheardes Calender.^[8] Merriam-Webster also gives 1579,^[7] and Etymonline the 1570s.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was soon extended to other sea animals and floating objects (1593, in Nashe), and to things as well as people (1639, in Fuller).^[8] It could also mean a flock of birds, from 1579 to 1801.^[8][9] The verb followed the same path: of fish from 1610, in Holland's translation of Camden, and of people, birds and things from before 1618, in Raleigh.^[8] Johnson (1755) put the crowd first, as "a croud; a great multitude; a throng", tracing it to Saxon scole.^[12]

Timeline

• 1579 – a large number of fish swimming together; a crowd of people, in Spenser; a flock of birds (obsolete by 1801).^[8][7]
• 1593 – other aquatic animals or floating objects, in Nashe.^[8]
• 1610 – verb, of fish, to swim together in a shoal.^[8][7]
• before 1618 – verb, of people, birds or things, to crowd together.^[8]
• 1639 – a large number of things, in Fuller.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large group of fish or other sea animals swimming together; a school: A shoal of mackerel turned beneath the boat.^[8][9][7]
2. A great number of people or things; a crowd: Shoals of reporters waited outside the court.^[8][9][7]
3. (obsolete, 1579–1801) A flock of birds.^[8][9]

Verb

1. Of fish, to gather or swim together in a shoal.^[8][9][7]
2. Of people or things, to throng together, often with in, up or together.^[8][9][7]