Etymologically
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shred

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Pronunciation

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English shrede, also shrade and schreade,[2][3] inherited from Old English scrēade (“a piece cut off, a paring”), also scrēad,[4][5][2][6] inherited from Proto-Germanic *skraudō (“a cut, a piece”).[7][8] It is cognate with Old Frisian skrēd (“a cutting, clipping of coin”), Old Saxon skrōd, Middle Low German schrōt, Middle Dutch schrōde and Old High German scrōt, the source of German Schrot.[2][9][6][8] The verb is inherited from Middle English shreden, inherited from Old English scrēadian (“to prune, pare, cut off”), from the noun.[4][5][10][9] Etymonline traces the base to Proto-Indo-European *skreu- (“to cut”), an extension of *sker- (“to cut”),[8][7] and Ayto and Hoad give a West Germanic base meaning "cut", which is also the source of shroud.[11][6][12] Compare screed.[9][13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English the noun is recorded in the plural for parings (of fruit) and pieces cut off, about 1000 in Ælfric's Glossary,[2][4][5] and the verb scrēadian meant to prune, lop or pare, in Ælfric's homilies.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The Old English verb was mainly a gardener's word: to prune trees and lop branches, a use the OED records until the 18th century.[4][9] In Middle English the noun was used for a scrap of food or a strip of cloth, including an ornamental strip hanging from a garment.[3][8] The verb gained the sense "to cut into thin strips or slices" by about 1386, in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale, where herbs are shredded for the pot,[4][5] and since 1613 it has been used of tearing cloth or paper into strips.[4] The figurative noun, a tiny bit of something immaterial, and the phrase to tear to shreds are recorded from about 1400.[4] The phrase of shreds and patches, made up of scraps, goes back to Shakespeare's Hamlet (1604).[4] In 17th- and 18th-century cant shred was a tailor.[4][15] The verb was used of destroying documents by 1906.[8] In late 20th-century American slang to shred was to skate or surf with daring moves,[15] and Collins records the sense of playing a guitar with great speed and skill.[16]

Timeline

  • Old English – verb, to prune, lop, pare.[4][5]
  • c. 1000 – noun, parings, pieces cut off, in Ælfric's Glossary.[2][4]
  • before 1200 – shrade, a fragment or scrap, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2]
  • c. 1386 – verb, to cut into thin strips, in Chaucer.[4]
  • before 1400 – a strip of cloth torn or cut off.[4]
  • c. 1400 – a small piece of something immaterial, and the phrase in shreds.[4]
  • 1613 – to cut or tear cloth or paper into strips.[4]
  • 1616 – cant, a tailor (obsolete).[4]
  • 1978 – slang, to skate fast and daringly.[15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A long narrow strip cut or torn off something: The flag hung in shreds after the storm.[16][17][4]
  2. A very small piece or amount; a scrap: There is not a shred of proof for the claim.[16][4]
  3. tear to shreds: to tear into small pieces; figuratively, to destroy an argument or a reputation.[4]

Verb

  1. To cut or tear into shreds: Shred the carrots before adding them to the salad.[16][17][4]
  2. To destroy documents by cutting them into strips in a shredder.[4][8]
  3. (slang) To play an electric guitar with great speed and skill.[16]
  4. (archaic) To lop off or prune.[17][9][4]

Word family

  • shredder

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b 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)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster