Etymologically
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shovel

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃʌv.əl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English schovele,[2][3] inherited from Old English scofl (“shovel”),[4][3][2][5][6] inherited from Proto-Germanic *skuflō,[7][8][3] related to scūfan (“to push, thrust”), the source of shove.[3][2][9][10] Barnhart reconstructs the Germanic form as *skublō.[2] Its cognates include Old Saxon skūfla, Middle Low German schūfle, Middle Dutch schoffel, Dutch schoffel (“weeding hoe”), Old High German scūvala and German Schaufel;[3][2][4][11][10] the OED takes the Scandinavian forms, such as Danish skovl and Swedish skovel, to be probably from Low German.[4] The Low German and Dutch words with a short vowel stand beside forms with a long vowel, as in Old High German, both from the root of shove.[4][9][12] The verb, shovelen, is from the noun.[3][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spade-like tool with a broad blade for lifting loose material: in the Old English Corpus Glossary, before 800.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English form schovele is recorded about 1300, and Barnhart finds it implied in soveltrowes in 1277.[2] The verb, to take up and move with a shovel, appeared about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum;[4][2][3] Etymonline notes that it often means to move or throw things in large quantities, hastily and clumsily,[3] and figurative uses of moving something roughly, like rubbish, are recorded from 1816.[4] The noun was later applied to things shaped like a shovel: the broad-brimmed shovel hat (1841), the flat part of a moose's antler (1908) and a brake fitted to a field gun (1899).[4] In west Yorkshire and Cheshire dialect a shovel was a spade,[13] and the duck called the shoveler is recorded from the mid-15th century.[3] In US slang a shovel was a banjo (1934).[14] The phrase shovel-ready, of a construction project, is attested by 2006.[3]

Timeline

  • before 800 – Old English scofl, a shovel, in the Corpus Glossary.[4][2]
  • 1277 – implied in soveltrowes.[2]
  • c. 1300 – Middle English schovele.[2]
  • c. 1440 – verb, to take up and remove with a shovel.[4][2]
  • ?a1500 – verb, to dig with a shovel.[4]
  • 1685 – verb, to gather up in quantities, as if with a shovel.[4]
  • 1841 – a shovel hat.[4]
  • 1881 – a shovelful.[4]
  • 2006 – shovel-ready.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tool with a broad, usually curved blade or scoop on a handle, used to lift and move loose material such as earth, coal or snow.[15][16][4]
  2. A machine or part of one that works like a shovel, as on a power shovel.[15][16]
  3. The amount a shovel holds; a shovelful: two shovels of sand.[15][4]
  4. Short for shovel hat.[15][4]

Verb

  1. To lift and throw or move with a shovel: They shovelled gravel into the trench.[16][4][15]
  2. To dig or clear with a shovel: to shovel the front path after the snowfall.[16][4]
  3. To move or put something in large amounts, roughly or hastily, as if with a shovel: He shovelled cereal into his mouth.[16][4][3]

Word family

  • shovelhead
  • shovelnose
  • shoveler
  • shovelful
  • shovel-nosed
  • unshoveled
  • unshovelled
  • power shovel

Usage notes

A rare verb shovel, to shuffle or walk lazily, recorded from about 1430, is apparently a frequentative of shove with a separate source, like shuffle.[4][12][16]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster