Etymograph

English

scarf

Scarf may come from Old Northern French escarpe.

  1. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400escarpeuncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602scarf

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400escarpeuncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602scarf

Earliest quotation: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “Vp from my Cabin, / My ſea-gowne scarft about…”

The story

Probably from Old Northern French escarpe (compare Old French escharpe (‘pilgrim's purse suspended from the neck’), which see).

Every English word from Old Northern French escarpe

Another origin of scarf

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ker-‘to cut’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skeraną‘to shear’uncertain
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350skera‘to cut’uncertain
  4. Old Norse, derivedc. 800–1350skarfr‘cormorant, shag’uncertainderivative of skera
  5. Englishtodayscarf

Another origin of scarf

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skarf-reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350skarfr‘cormorant, shag’
  3. Englishtodayscarf

Today it means

noun A long, often knitted, garment worn around the neck.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Old Northern French escarpe / scarf

Shirt and support for this word