eschew

WOTD – 28 March 2006

English[edit]

From Middle English eschewen, from Anglo-Norman eschiver (third-person present eschiu), from Frankish *sciuhan (“to dread, shun, avoid”), from Proto-Germanic *skiuhwijanan (“to frighten”). Cognate with Old High German sciuhen (“to frighten off”). More at shy.

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eschew (third-person singular simple present eschews, present participle eschewing, simple past and past participle eschewed)

The verb eschew is not normally applied to the avoidance or shunning of a person or physical object, but rather, only to the avoidance or shunning of an idea, concept, or other intangible.

		1599				1927
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

1599, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor

What cannot be eschew’d must be embrac’d.
1927, H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror at Red Hook

He could afford no servants, and would admit but few visitors to his absolute solitude; eschewing close friendships and receiving his rare acquaintances in one of the three ground-floor rooms which he kept in order.

avoid, shun

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Concise Oxford English Dictionary
^ the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
^ MacMillan's British dictionary
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 ^4.4 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, eleventh edition
^ Dictionary.com's (primary) dictionary
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 Keynon and Knott's A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English
^ Collins English Dictionary, tenth edition
^ John Walker's A Critical Pronuncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language, which quotes James Elphinston, who also preferred the spelling eskew