schoffel

Forms

schoffel m (plural schoffels, diminutive schoffeltje n)^[1] Middle Dutch has schuffel (eastern) beside schoefel and scofel, and Kiliaan in 1599 has schuffel, schoeffel and schuyffel.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch schuffel, inherited from Proto-Germanic *skuflō (“shovel”).^[2][1][4] The EWN derives it from the zero grade of the root of schuiven “to push” with the Proto-Germanic suffix for tool names *-ila, as in beitel, so that it was a tool for pushing something along.^[2][5] The fricative became voiceless and doubled before /l/, as in gaffel and bochel.^[2][4][6]

The same word is Old Saxon skūfla (in windskūfla (“winnowing shovel”)), Middle Low German schuffele, Old High German scūfla and scūvala (modern German Schaufel), West Frisian skoffel, Old English scofl (modern English shovel) and Swedish skovel, all meaning “shovel”.^[2][4] De Vries sets this form, with short ⟨u⟩, beside an ablaut form ⟨*skūflō⟩ with long ⟨ū⟩, seen in Achterhoek ⟨schûfel⟩ “grain shovel”, Middle Low German schūfele and the Old High German word.^[4][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest Dutch sense is “shovel, spade”: a 15th-century text from the north-east of the Netherlands fines anyone who loses spade ofte schuffel “a spade or shovel”, and one of 1464 has spaeden off schoefelen.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “shovel” is still the general one in the other Germanic languages and survives in some, mainly southern, Dutch dialects; the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal found it in Groningen and Antwerp.^[2][8] The modern Dutch and Low German sense, a tool for weeding, is easily explained from a smaller and sharper blade; it is first recorded in 1651, in a line saying that the hoe has no rest because weeding never ends.^[2][8][9] The verb schoffelen “to hoe” is recorded from 1643.^[2]

Dutch colonists took the word to Brandenburg as schuffel, and English scuffle “a kind of hoe” is recorded from 1798, the verb from 1766.^[4][10] Norwegian and dialectal German also borrowed it, and Afrikaans has skoffel.^[10][1]

Timeline

• 15th century – Schuffel “shovel, spade” is recorded in the north-eastern Netherlands.^[3][2]
• 1464 – The form schoefelen appears.^[2]
• c. 1483 – Mystschofel “dung shovel” is recorded.^[2]
• 1599 – Kiliaan records schuffel, schoeffel and schuyffel “shovel, spade”.^[2]
• 1617 – The spelling schoffel appears.^[2]
• 1643 – The verb schoffelen “to weed with a hoe” is recorded.^[2]
• 1651 – Schoffel is used of the weeding hoe.^[8][9]
• 1766 – English scuffle “to hoe” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Dutch hoe: a garden tool with a flat, sharp steel blade set at a slight angle on a long handle, pushed through the ground to cut weeds below the root and loosen the topsoil.^[11][12][1]
2. A hoeing machine.^[11]
3. (anatomy) The wing-shaped part of the hip bone.^[12]
4. (regional, northern and eastern Netherlands) A shovel, spade.^[1][8]

Word family

• schoffelen

Related words

• schuiven
• English shovel
• German Schaufel

Usage notes

A schoffel is sometimes distinguished from a hak: the blade of the first points away from the user, that of the second towards him.^[2] In Groningen hij neemt de schoffel mee “he takes the shovel with him” was said of someone who would stay at his new post until he died.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
3. ^ a b c Verwijs, Eelco; Verdam, Jacob (1885–1929), Middelnederlandsch woordenboek, 11 vols., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff; gtb.ivdnt.org
4. ^ a b c d e f Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ Veen, P. A. F. van; Sijs, Nicoline van der (1997), Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2nd ed., Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Lexicografie
6. ^ a b Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
7. ^ Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 330
8. ^ a b c d e Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
9. ^ a b Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
10. ^ a b Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
11. ^ a b Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; anw.ivdnt.org
12. ^ a b Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers