Wiktionary

sheep

English

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A domestic sheep
 
Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis)
 
Sheep (plural)

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Inherited from Middle English schep, schepe, from Anglian Old English sċēp (West Saxon sċēap), from Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą , 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]

See also West Frisian skiep, North Frisian schäip, Dutch schaap, German Schaf), beside Proto-Germanic *keppô (compare Old Norse kjappi (“buck”), dialectal German Kippe (“newborn calf”)).

Alternative forms

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Noun

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

  1. (countable) A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.
    • 1955 July, D. S. Barrie, “Railways of the Bridgend District”, in Railway Magazine, page 449:
      There is much sad evidence, too, of the spoliation and dereliction of vanished industry: tips, slag-heaps and derelict colliery-screens among which the ubiquitous, nomad mountain sheep graze unconcernedly.
  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
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Tok Pisin: sipsip (reduplication)
    • → Rotokas: sipisipi
  • → Abenaki: azib (from "a sheep")
  • → Chuukese: siip
  • → Coeur d'Alene: sip
  • → Quiripi: sheeps
Translations
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See also

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Further reading

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Etymology 2

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Noun

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sheep

  1. (chiefly humorous) plural of shoop

References

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  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

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Middle English

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Noun

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sheep

  1. Alternative form of schep

Scots

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle Scots scheip, from Middle English schep, from Old English scēap.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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sheep (plural sheep)

  1. sheep (woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis)
    • 1983, William Lorimer, transl., The New Testament in Scots, Edinburgh: Canongate, published 2001, →ISBN, →OCLC, Luke 15:4, page 135:
      "Whilk ane o ye", qo he, "at hes a hunder sheep, an ane o them gaes will, will lae the ither ninetie-nine thereout i the muirs an gae seek the ane at hes gane will or aince he finnds it? […]
      "Which one of you", he said, "who has a hundred sheep, when one of them gets lost, will abandon the other ninety-nine out in the moors to go and look for the one who's got lost until he finds it? […]

Yola

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Noun

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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

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  • 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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