shove

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shouven, also scuven and shoven,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English scūfan (“to push away, thrust”),^[4][3][5][6] a strong verb with the past tense scēaf and the past participle scofen.^[7][6] The Old English verb comes from Proto-Germanic *skeubaną,^[4][8][9] the source also of Old Frisian skūva, Middle Dutch schūven (now schuiven), Middle Low German schūven, Old High German scioban (now schieben), the weak verb Old Norse skúfa and Gothic 𐌰𐍆𐍃𐌺𐌹𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌽 (afskiuban, “to push away, cast off”).^{[3][7][10][11][8]} Etymonline and Barnhart derive it from the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *skeubʰ- (“to shove”),^[4][3] but the OED, noting traces of a variant with f (as in shovel), reconstructs the pre-Germanic form as *skeup-.^[7] A likely relative outside Germanic is Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”).^[12][8][4] From the same Germanic base come shuffle, scuffle and sheaf, as well as shovel.^[13][4][10] The strong past forms began to give way to weak ones such as shouved in the 14th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To push away or thrust with force, and of a boat, to launch it by pushing: the boat sense is in Beowulf (line 215).^[7][3][14] The OED's first example of the violent sense, to thrust or cast away, is from Cynewulf's Elene.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle English the verb was a neutral word for pushing hard, used of thrusting a weapon into a body (c. 1275–1586), of banishing someone from an office (c. 1200–1657) and of winds driving things along (a1325–1705).^[7] Chaucer used it 11 times and Gower 6, for pushing, driving and moving.^[15] The sense of pushing a heavy object forward with effort is recorded from about 1275.^[7] According to Ayto the word has since come down in the world and taken on a tinge of rudeness,^[13] and Weekley and Etymonline note that push has replaced it except in colloquial and nautical use.^[16][4] The boating sense gave shove off, first to push a boat away from the bank and since 1844, in American slang, to leave.^[4][7] The noun, a strong push, is recorded from before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi,^[3][7] and was used figuratively for an impulse that makes someone act from 1724;^[7] in slang the shove was dismissal from a job (1899).^[7][17] Shove the queer, to pass counterfeit money, is from 1859, and shove it became a rude dismissal by 1941.^[4] In Canada a shove is the forward rush of packed ice in a thawing river (1865).^[7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – scūfan, in Beowulf, of launching a boat.^[3][7]
• c. 1200 – to banish or reject (obsolete by 1657).^[7]
• c. 1275 – to push a heavy object along with effort.^[7]
• before 1325 – noun, a push, in the Cursor Mundi.^[3][7]
• 1513 – to propel a boat with a pole.^[7]
• 1724 – noun, figurative, an impulse to act.^[7]
• 1844 – shove off, to depart, originally American.^[7][4]
• 1859 – shove the queer, to pass counterfeit money.^[4]
• 1865 – Canadian, a forward movement of river ice.^[7]
• 1899 – the shove, dismissal from a job.^[7][17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To push something or someone with force: He shoved the crate across the floor.^[11][12][7]
2. To push roughly against someone; to jostle.^[11][12]
3. To push one's way roughly forward: Fans shoved toward the stage.^[11][12]
4. (informal) To put something somewhere hastily or carelessly: Just shove the letters in a drawer.^[11][12]
5. To propel a boat with a pole or by pushing; with off, to push a boat away from shore.^[7][12]
6. shove off (informal): to go away, leave.^[7][11][4]
7. (archaic) To thrust or cast violently away.^[12][7][10]

Noun

1. A forcible push: A shove from behind sent her stumbling.^[11][12][7]
2. (figurative) An impulse or exertion of influence that gets a person or thing moving.^[12][7][10]
3. the shove (British slang): dismissal from a job.^[7][17]
4. (Canada) A forward surge of packed ice in a thawing river.^[7]

Word family

• shover
• outshove
• unshoved

Related words

• shovel
• shuffle
• scuffle
• sheaf

Usage notes

A separate dialect noun shove, the woody core of flax or hemp or the fragments broken off it in scutching (1688), is apparently an alteration of shive, perhaps influenced by the push.^[7][10][18]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Klaeber, Fr., ed. (1922), Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, Boston: D. C. Heath
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ 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)