shelf

English

Etymology

From Middle English schelfe, probably from Old English sċylfe (“deck of a ship”), distantly related to sculpt, carve and shell. Cognate to Dutch schelf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɛlf/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlf

Noun

shelf (plural shelves)

A simple wooden wall shelf

1. A flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk etc., and used to support, store or display objects.
   • 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[1]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):

     Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.

2. The capacity of such an object

   a shelf of videos

3. A projecting ledge that resembles such an object.
4. A reef, shoal or sandbar.

Synonyms

• (capacity): shelfful

Related terms

• shelve

Hyponyms

• bookshelf
• chimney shelf
• continental shelf
• ice shelf
• parcel shelf
• sulfur shelf
• sulphur shelf

 

Derived terms

• ice-shelf
• off-the-shelf
• shelfful
• top-shelf

 

Related terms

• off the shelf
• on the shelf
• shelf ice
• shelvy

 

Descendants

• → Czech: šelf
• → Irish: seilf
• → Serbo-Croatian: šȅlf, ше̏лф
• → Welsh: silff

Translations

structure

• Albanian: raft (sq) m
• Arabic: رَفّ‎ m (raff)

  Egyptian Arabic: رف‎ m (raff)

• Armenian: դարակ (hy) (darak)
• Azerbaijani: rəf (az)
• Bashkir: кәштә (käštä)
• Basque: apal
• Belarusian: палі́ца f (palíca)
• Bengali: তাক (tak)
• Breton: estajerenn n
• Bulgarian: по́лица (bg) f (pólica), етаже́рка (bg) f (etažérka), рафт (bg) m (raft)
• Burmese: စင် (my) (cang)
• Catalan: prestatge (ca) m, estant (ca) m, lleixa (ca) f
• Cebuano: estante
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 架 (gaa^3-2)

  Mandarin: 架子 (zh) (jiàzi)

  Min Nan: 架仔 (zh-min-nan) (kè-á)

• Czech: police (cs) f
• Danish: hylde (da) c
• Dutch: schap (nl) n, rek (nl) n, plank (nl) f, legplank (nl) f
• Esperanto: breto
• Estonian: riiul
• Faroese: hill f
• Fijian: vata (fj)
• Finnish: hylly (fi)
• French: rayon (fr) m, étagère (fr) f, tablard (fr) m (Switzerland)
• Friulian: scansìe m
• Galician: paramio m, paraño m, parañoa f, andel (gl) m, alzadeira f, cunqueiro (gl) m, vaseira f, prateleira f
• Georgian: თარო (taro)
• German: Regal (de) n
• Greek: ράφι (el) n (ráfi)
• Gujarati: અભરાઈ f (abharāī)
• Hebrew: מַדָּף‎ (he) m (madáf)
• Hindi: तख़्ता (taxtā)
• Hungarian: polc (hu)
• Icelandic: hilla (is) f
• Indonesian: rak (id)
• Irish: seilf f
• Italian: scaffale (it) m, mensola (it) f, ripiano (it) m, palchetto (it) m
• Japanese: 棚 (ja) (たな, tana)
• Kalmyk: таг (tag)
• Kazakh: сөре (kk) (söre)
• Khmer: ធ្នើរ (km) (tnəə)
• Komi-Permyak: джадж (džadž)
• Korean: 선반 (ko) (seonban)
• Kyrgyz: полка (polka), текче (ky) (tekçe)
• Lao: ຫິ້ງ (hing), ຊັ້ນ (san)
• Latvian: plaukts m
• Ligurian: rician m
• Lingala: motáláká 3 or 4
• Lithuanian: lentyna f

• Macedonian: полица f (polica)
• Malagasy: talantalana (mg)
• Malay: rak (ms)
• Maltese: xkaffa f
• Manx: skelloo f
• Maori: paenga, whata
• Middle English: stage
• Mongolian: тавиур (mn) (taviur)
• Neapolitan: stìglio m, scanzia f
• Norman: ais m (Guernsey, Jersey), êtagéthe f (Jersey)
• Northern Sami: hildu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hylle (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: hylle f

• Ojibwe: desaabaan
• Persian: رف‎ (fa) (raf)
• Polish: półka (pl) f, regał (pl) m
• Portuguese: prateleira (pt) f, estante (pt) f
• Romanian: poliță (ro) f, raft (ro) n
• Russian: по́лка (ru) f (pólka)
• Scottish Gaelic: sgeilp f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̀лица f, ра̏ф m

  Roman: pòlica (sh) f, rȁf (sh) m

• Sicilian: scaffa (scn) f
• Slovak: polica f
• Slovene: políca (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: regal m, pólica f

• Spanish: estante m, balda (es) f, anaquel (es) m
• Swahili: rafu 9 or 10
• Swedish: hylla (sv) c
• Tajik: раф (raf)
• Tamil: அடுக்கம் (ta) (aṭukkam), அடுக்கு (ta) (aṭukku)
• Tatar: киштә (tt) (kiştä)
• Telugu: అర (te) (ara)
• Thai: หิ้ง (th) (hîng)
• Tibetan: བང་ཁྲི (bang khri)
• Turkish: sergen (tr), raf (tr)
• Turkmen: tekje
• Udmurt: ӝажы (džažy)
• Ukrainian: поли́ця f (polýcja)
• Urdu: تخته‎ (taxta)
• Uyghur: جازا‎ (jaza)
• Uzbek: polka (uz), tokcha (uz)
• Venetian: scansìa f
• Vietnamese: giá sách (bookshelf), giá (vi)
• Vilamovian: faht n, faocht n
• Walloon: axhale f, axhlete (wa) f
• Welsh: silff (cy) f, silffoedd (cy) f pl
• Westrobothnian: hill f
• Yiddish: פּאָליצע‎ f (politse)
• Zulu: ishalufu 5 or 6

capacity

• Dutch: schap (nl) n, rek (nl) n
• French: étagère (fr) f, rayonnage (fr) m
• Galician: paramio m, paraño m, parañoa f, andel (gl) m, alzadeira f, cunqueiro (gl) m, vaseira f, prateleira f

• Portuguese: prateleira (pt) f, estante (pt) f
• Spanish: estantería (es) f
• Swedish: hylla (sv) c
• Walloon: håynaedje (wa) m

projecting ledge resembling a shelf

• Dutch: schap (nl) n
• Scots: bink

• Scottish Gaelic: sgeilp f

reef, shoal, sandbar

• Armenian: շելֆ (hy) (šelf)
• Bulgarian: шелф m (šelf)
• Galician: recife m, pedrido m, brica f, ariño m, sirte m, baixío m
• German: Schelf m
• Russian: шельф (ru) m (šelʹf)

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пличина f, шелф m

  Roman: pličina (sh) f, šelf (sh) m

• Spanish: arrecife (es) m, banco (es) m, cordón (es) m, bajío (es) m
• Swedish: bank (sv) c, sandbank (sv) c, kontinentalsockel (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Italian: ^{(please verify)} asse (it)

• Welsh: ^{(please verify)} silff (cy)

References

• shelf on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Fehls, flesh

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Middle English

Noun

shelf

1. Alternative form of schelfe