shroud

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʃɹaʊd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shroud (“garment”), inherited from Old English scrūd (“garment, clothing”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Proto-Germanic *skrūdą,^[3][4] related to Old Norse skrúð (“shrouds of a ship; ornament”),^[3][4][6] and akin to Old English scrēade, the source of shred,^[3][5][6] from a Proto-Indo-European root *skreu- “to cut”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A garment, an article of clothing (c. 1000).^[7][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The specific sense to which the word is now chiefly restricted, the cloth in which a corpse is wrapped for burial, dates only from 1570.^[7][3][4] The nautical sense, the ropes supporting a mast, dates from the mid-15th century (1458) and comes from the idea of “clothing” a mast; a mast without its rigging was said to be naked.^[7][3][4] The verb meant “to clothe” (before 1300), then “to shelter” and “to conceal” (15th century).^[7][4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – a garment.^[7][3]
• before 1300 – verb, to clothe.^[7]
• c. 1402 – verb, to conceal.^[7]
• 1458 – the ropes supporting a mast.^[7]
• 1570 – a burial cloth; verb, to dress for burial.^[7][3][4]
• 1942 – a parachute line.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A cloth in which a body is wrapped for burial; a winding sheet.
2. Something that conceals, protects or screens, as in a shroud of mist.
3. (nautical) One of the ropes or cables running from a masthead to the sides of a ship to support the mast.
4. One of the lines connecting the harness and canopy of a parachute.
5. A protective covering, as over a spacecraft's payload during launch.

Verb

1. To conceal from view; to veil or obscure, as in shrouded in mystery.
2. To wrap (a body) in a burial cloth.
3. (archaic) To shelter; to take shelter.

Word family

• enshroud

Related words

• shred
• sheet
• cerement

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press