Etymologically
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shoulder

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈʃəʊl.də/, US /ˈʃoʊl.dɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shulder, sholder, inherited from Old English sculdor,[2][3] from Proto-West Germanic *skuldru,[2][4] the source also of Old Frisian skuldere, Dutch schouder and German Schulter.[2][5] Its origin is unknown;[2][4] Etymonline suggests a link with shield, and Barnhart a root meaning “shoulder blade”, used as a tool for digging, compared with Greek skallein “to hoe”.[2][5] The word is not found in Old Norse, and Swedish and Danish borrowed it from Middle Low German.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The joint and region where the arm joins the trunk: before 700 in the OED.[6] Already in Old English it was used figuratively for strength to bear burdens.[2]

Semantic evolution

The shoulder blade is from about 1300.[2][5] The verb, to push with the shoulder, is also from about 1300, in Havelok the Dane,[5][6] and to take on a burden from the 1580s (Stanyhurst's Aeneid, 1582).[2][5] The military sense, to carry a musket against the shoulder, is by the 1590s,[2] and shoulder to shoulder (1580s) first described soldiers in formation.[2] The edge of a road is from 1933,[2] and to cry on someone's shoulder by 1935.[2]

Timeline

  • a. 700 – the shoulder of a person.[6]
  • c. 1300 – verb, to push with the shoulder, and shoulder blade.[5][2]
  • 1582 – to take on a burden.[5]
  • 1688 – shoulder strap.[5]
  • 1933 – the edge of a road.[2]
  • 1951 – shoulder-length hair.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The joint where the arm joins the body, or the part of the body between the neck and the upper arm.
  2. The corresponding part of an animal, or meat cut from it.
  3. The part of a garment that covers the shoulder.
  4. The strip of ground at the edge of a road.
  5. A part of something that sticks out like a shoulder, such as the slope near the top of a bottle or mountain.

Verb

  1. To accept a burden or responsibility.
  2. To push with the shoulder.
  3. To carry on the shoulder.

Word family

  • shouldered
  • cold-shoulder
  • straight-from-the-shoulder
  • reshoulder
  • shoulder bag
  • shoulder belt
  • shoulder blade
  • shoulder season
  • shield

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press