shiv
See also: Shiv
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
First attested 1915. From chive, chieve, chife, chiv (“knife”), from Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger, blade”).[1][2][3][4][5]
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
shiv (plural shivs)
- A knife, especially a makeshift one fashioned from something not normally used as a weapon (like a plastic spoon or a toothbrush).
- Synonym: (slang) shank
- 1971, Abbie Hoffman, “Introduction”, in Steal This Book, Pirate Editions / Grove Press:
- It's perhaps fitting that I write this introduction in jail—that graduate school of survival. Here you learn how to use toothpaste as glue, fashion a shiv out of a spoon and build intricate communication networks.
- 2024 April 13, Jacob Bernstein, quoting Judith Regan, “When O.J. Simpson ‘Confessed’ to Murder”, in The New York Times[1]:
- Mr. Simpson finished “If I Did It” with the help of a ghostwriter, but after a public outcry, the book was shelved, and the woman who had agreed to publish it lost her job. “Basically, I got the shiv,” Ms. Regan said in a phone interview this week.
- A particular woody by-product of processing flax or hemp.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
knife
Verb edit
shiv (third-person singular simple present shivs, present participle shivving, simple past and past participle shivved)
- To stab someone with a shiv.
- 2016, Andrew Shaffer, The Day of the Donald, Crooked Lane Books, →ISBN, page 6:
- Anyway, that's how Jimmie came to be shivved and left to bleed out in the shower.
- (by extension) To stab someone with anything not normally used as a stabbing weapon.
Synonyms edit
Translations edit
stab
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References edit
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “shiv”, in Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved 6 July 2017.: “"a razor," 1915, variant of chive, thieves' cant word for "knife" (1670s), of unknown origin.”
- ^ “shiv”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.: “Alteration of chiv, of unknown origin. First known use: 1915”
- ^ “shiv”, in Collins English Dictionary, accessed 6 July 2017; from Michael Agnes, editor, Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th edition, Cleveland, Oh.: Wiley, 2010, →ISBN.: “Word origin of 'shiv': earlier chiv, prob. < Romany chiv, blade”
- ^ “shiv”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. "Probably from Romany chiv ‘blade’."
- ^ Jonathon Green (2024) “shiv n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang