shop

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ʃɒp/, US /ʃɑːp/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shoppe, ssope,^[2][3] perhaps inherited from Old English sceoppa (“booth, shed”), scoppa, a rare word,^[4][2][3] related to scypen (“cowshed”),^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *skoppan (“small additional structure”),^[4] the source also of Old High German scopf “porch, shed” and German Schuppen “shed”.^[4][3] Or the word was taken, with loss of the first syllable, from Anglo-Norman and Old French eschoppe “lean-to booth, cobbler's stall” (modern échoppe), itself a Germanic loan from the same root,^[4][5][6] through Middle Low German schoppe.^[5] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare sheaf, supposing an original sense “roof thatched with straw”.^[2][3] The verb is from the noun.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A house or building where goods are made or prepared for sale: 1297 in the OED,^[7] about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline;^[2][4] Shoppe was a surname from 1301.^[2] The earliest shops were small stalls or booths, like those in a market.^[8]

Semantic evolution

A building or room for the sale of goods is from 1362,^[7] the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[4] A workshop for a particular trade is from the 15th century.^[7] The verb first meant “to shut up, imprison” (1583), from an obsolete slang use of the noun for a prison;^[7][9] it survives in British slang as “to inform on someone”, which Word Origins dates to 1548.^[8][6] “To visit shops to buy” is from 1764,^[4][2] and shop around from 1922.^[4] Talk shop, “talk about one's trade”, is by 1847, and shoptalk from 1881.^[4][2] Shopkeeper is from 1530, shoplifter from 1680 and shopping center from 1898.^[2] Shop till you drop is as early as 1904.^[8]

Timeline

• 1297 – a place where goods are made for sale.^[7]
• 1362 – a place where goods are sold.^[7]
• 1530 – shopkeeper.^[2]
• 1583 – verb, to imprison.^[7]
• 1680 – shoplifter.^[2]
• 1764 – verb, to visit shops.^[4][2]
• 1847 – talk shop.^[4]
• 1898 – shopping center.^[2]
• 1922 – shop around.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A building or room where goods are sold; a store.
2. A place where things are made or repaired; a workshop.
3. A business or place of work; one's trade as a subject of talk: talk shop.
4. (US) A school class in practical crafts.

Verb

1. To visit shops to look at or buy goods.
2. To look for the best choice or price: shop around.
3. (British slang) To inform on someone to the police.

Word family

• shopper

Related words

• shoppe
• shopkeeper
• shoplifter
• shopping
• workshop
• sheaf
• shippon

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press