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sheep

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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A domestic sheep (Ovis aries)
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]

Cognates

Cognate with Scots sheep (“sheep”), Yola sheep, zheep (“sheep”), North Frisian schep, schäip, Sjip (“sheep”), Saterland Frisian Schäip, Skäip (“sheep”), West Frisian skiep (“sheep”), Alemannic German Schaf, Schooff (“sheep”), Bavarian Schof, Schouf, Schåf (“sheep”), Dutch schaap (“sheep”), German Schaf (“sheep”), German Low German Schaap (“sheep”), Limburgish Schoëp, sjaop (“sheep”), Luxembourgish Schof (“sheep”), Vilamovian siöf (“sheep”), Yiddish שאָף (shof, “sheep”).

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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