scheren

scheren¹ to shave

Pronunciation

• /ˈsxeː.rə(n)/^[1]

Forms

scheren^[1]

Etymology

The word for shaving is inherited from Middle Dutch scêren, inherited from Old Dutch skeran, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *skeran,^[2] inherited from Proto-Germanic *skeraną (“to cut, shear”), a strong verb.^[3][1][4] The same verb is Middle Low German scheren, Old High German skeran (modern German scheren), Old Frisian skera, Old English sceran (modern English shear) and Old Norse skera, all meaning to shear or cut off, hair among other things.^[3][5] The EWN counts schaar “scissors”, scheur, schort and schorten among the derivatives of the same root, and perhaps scherf and scherp.^[3]

Outside Germanic it is related to Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “to cut off, shear”) and Albanian shqerr (“to tear off”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, scratch”).^[3][5] The EWN adds, as probably related, Latin carō (“flesh”) (originally “a piece of meat”), Lithuanian skìrti (“to separate, divide”) and an Old Irish verb meaning “separates”, for which a root with a laryngeal, *skerH- (“to separate, divide”), is set up; the LIV keeps the two roots apart because their meanings differ too much.^[3] Kroonen reconstructs the Germanic verb on the laryngeal root and puts the Lithuanian and Old Irish verbs with it.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old Dutch the verb appears around 1100 in the Willeram, in a phrase about a flock of shorn sheep.^[3][6] The first Middle Dutch record is a Ghent rule of 1236 that says how the members should all shave their heads, and a Limburg glossary of about 1240 gives scheren for Latin tondere and radere.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Besides hair, the verb was used in the cloth trade: Bruges rules of 1277 and 1278 fine anyone who sheared a cloth badly, that is, cut the raised nap level.^[7] In Early Modern Dutch it took on the figurative sense “to sweep quickly and closely over a surface”: in 1555 a head is roughly geschoren with a slipper, and in 1653 birds come scheren along the ground.^[3] Van Dale also gives the senses “to clip crops short” and “to overcharge”.^[8]

Over één kam scheren “to shave on one comb”, to treat as all alike, is recorded from 1599 and 1663; in the south it was op één kam.^[9] De varkens scheren “to shear the pigs”, to get the worse end of a deal while another shears the sheep, appears in 1865.^[9] A curse in a farce of 1705 wishes that the devil may shave someone.^[10] Ergens mee geschoren zijn, to be saddled with a problem, uses the old sense “to fleece, torment”.^[11]

The verb went into Negerhollands (skeer), Berbice Dutch (skeri) and Sranan Tongo (sker), and English sheer “to swerve from a course” comes from its skimming sense.^[12][1]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Old Dutch skeran is recorded, of shorn sheep.^[3][6]
• 1236 – Middle Dutch scheren appears in Ghent, of shaving the head.^[3][7]
• 1277 – Bruges rules use it for shearing the nap of cloth.^[7]
• 1555 – The sense “to sweep closely over a surface” appears.^[3]
• 1599 – The phrase op desen kam scheren is recorded.^[9]
• 1653 – Birds are said to scheren along the ground.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shave: to cut hair or a beard close to the skin with a razor or shaver; also reflexive, zich scheren “to shave”.^[8][1]
2. To shear an animal: to clip its hair or wool short, as of sheep.^[8][1]
3. To clip plants or a hedge short at regular intervals.^[8]
4. To trim the raised threads of a fabric level.^[8]
5. To charge someone too much.^[8]
6. (intransitive) To skim: to move fast, just clear of a surface.^[8][3]

Word family

• afscheren
• kaalscheren
• scheerapparaat
• scheermes
• scheerschuim
• scheerzeep
• scheerder
• scheersel
• bijscheren

scheren² to stretch, arrange

Pronunciation

• /ˈsxeː.rə(n)/^[1]

Forms

scheren^[1]

Etymology

The verb for arranging and stretching is inherited from Middle Dutch scêren (“to arrange, stretch”), inherited from Proto-Germanic *skarjaną, originally a weak verb whose ⟨-i-⟩ caused umlaut.^[3][1][13] Its cognates are Old Saxon skerian (“to allot, determine, divide”), Old High German scerian (“to allot”) (surviving in German bescheren) and Old English scierian (“to allot, assign”).^[3][5]

Wiktionary calls it a causative of Proto-Germanic *skeraną, the verb for shaving above.^[1] The EWN does not derive the shared sense “to allot, divide” directly from that verb: it takes the weak verb from a noun Proto-Germanic *skarō- (“part, division”), the source of schaar “troop”, so the two verbs are related only through their root.^[3] Under the influence of the strong verb for shaving it came to be conjugated strong, though weak forms are recorded too.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Early Middle Dutch texts of 1265–1270 use the verb for making a poem and for setting a snare, and a text of 1270 uses it in weaving, of someone who would scheren (lay the warp threads) or wind yarn in a townsman's house.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to allot” has died out; it passed to the derivative bescheren, which survives in the past participle beschoren “allotted”, beside older bescheerd.^[3] As a weaving term the verb meant laying out the warp on a frame (leer scheeren op het raem, 1625).^[3][9] From there it came to mean stretching a rope: a net is stretched around 1440, a rope line in 1510–1512.^[3][14] In ropemaking it meant laying yarn into a bundle (1879), and on ships it meant reeving a rope through a block (1656) and erecting a ship's frame (1813).^[9] Een raad scheren, to devise a plan, is found in 1527.^[9] Of these uses the derivative schering “warp” and the compound scheerlijn remain current;^[3] scheerlijn first meant a line that held the rigging of a sailing ship (1671) and now mostly means a guy rope of a tent.^[3]

Zich wegscheren “to clear off”, recorded as zig weg scheeren in 1717 and as zich scheren in 1708, is now used almost only in the imperative.^[3] The EWN thinks it was probably borrowed from German sich scheren, which goes back to Middle High German, and explains it from a reflexive “to separate oneself” out of “to divide”, as with French partir; it finds Kluge's view that the German verb is an unrelated word unlikely.^[3] De Vries instead links the German verb with a root meaning “to leap”, and Franck–Van Wijk took it as a germanism identical with the verb for cutting.^[5][15]

Timeline

• 1265–1270 – Middle Dutch sceren is recorded for making a poem and setting a snare.^[3][7]
• 1270 – It is used for laying the warp in weaving.^[3][7]
• c. 1440 – A net is said to be stretched (scheren).^[3]
• 1527 – Een raad scheren “to devise a plan” is recorded.^[9]
• 1671 – Scheerlijn is first recorded, of a ship's line.^[3]
• 1708 – Zich scheren “to clear off” is recorded.^[3]
• 1717 – Zich wegscheren is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lay out the warp threads on a loom or frame.^[9][1]
2. (nautical) To reeve a rope through a block;^[8][9] een takel scheren is to rig a tackle.^[8][9]
3. To stretch a rope or line taut.^[8][1]
4. zich (weg)scheren: to clear off, chiefly in the imperative, scheer je weg! “get lost!”.^[3][10]

Word family

• bescheren
• schering
• scheerlijn
• scheertouw
• wegscheren