sheep

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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:
      Wourlok'd an anooree, lick lhuskès o' sheep.
      Tumbled on one-another, like flocks of sheep.

References[edit]

  • Jacob Poole (1867), 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, page 88
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