Wiktionary

sheep

English edit

 
A domestic sheep

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English schep, schepe, from Anglian Old English sċēp, a variant of sċēap, from Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą (compare West Frisian skiep, North Frisian schäip, Dutch schaap, German Schaf), beside *keppô (compare Old Norse kjappi (“buck”), dialectal German Kippe (“newborn calf”)), of unknown origin. Perhaps from the same Scythian word (compare Ossetian цӕу (cæw, “goat”), Persian چپش (čapiš, “yearling goat”))[1] which was borrowed into Albanian as cjap, sqap (“buck”) and into Slavic (compare Polish cap). After Kroonen, *skēpą is instead from the root of Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to scratch”) via Kluge's law.[2]

Alternative forms edit

Noun edit

sheep (countable and uncountable, plural sheep or (nonstandard, mostly humorous) sheeps)

  1. (countable) A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.
  2. (countable, strictly) A member of the domestic species Ovis aries, the most well-known species of Ovis.
  3. (countable) A timid, shy person who is easily led by others.
    Synonyms: lamb, ovine; see also Thesaurus:shy person
  4. (countable, chiefly Christianity, chiefly plural) A religious adherent, a member of a congregation or religious community (compare flock).
    • 1990, Dave Mustaine, "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", Megadeth, Rust in Peace.
      And fools like me, who cross the sea and come to foreign lands / Ask the sheep, for their beliefs do you kill on God's command?
  5. (uncountable) Sheepskin leather.
  6. (countable, speech recognition) A person who is easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with goat.
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
  • Tok Pisin: sipsip (reduplication)
    • → Rotokas: sipisipi
  • → Abenaki: azib (from "a sheep")
  • → Chuukese: siip
  • → Coeur d'Alene: sip
  • → Quiripi: sheeps
Translations edit

See also edit

Further reading edit

Etymology 2 edit

Noun edit

sheep

  1. (chiefly humorous) plural of shoop

References edit

  1. ^ Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, s.vv. "*keppōn", "*skēpan" (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 213, 340
  2. ^ Guus Kroonen (2011), The Proto-Germanic n-stems: a study in diachronic morphophonology [1], Rodopi, →ISBN.

Anagrams edit

Middle English edit

Noun edit

sheep

  1. Alternative form of schep

Scots edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English schep, from Old English scēap, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

sheep (plural sheep)

  1. sheep (woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis)

Alternative forms edit

Yola edit

Noun edit

sheep

  1. Alternative form of zheep
    • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 9, page 88:
      Wourlok'd an anooree, lick lhuskès o' sheep.
      Tumbled on one-another, like flocks of sheep.

References edit

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 88
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