English
scye
Scye comes from Scots sey ‘armhole, cut of beef’, and goes back to Middle Scots say.
- Middle Scotsmodernsay1
- Scotsc. 1450–presentsey1‘armhole, cut of beef’
- Englishearliest quotation 1974scye1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English scye
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1974, Guy Davenport: “on the seat lay folded a pair of blue…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Middle ScotsmodernsayWiktionary, English scye
- Scotsc. 1450–presentseyWiktionary, English scye‘armhole, cut of beef’
- Englishearliest quotation 1974scyeWiktionary, English scye. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1974, Guy Davenport: “on the seat lay folded a pair of blue…”
The story
Borrowed from Scots sey (‘armhole, cut of beef’), from Middle Scots say, possibly from Old Norse segi, sigi (‘chunk, bite’), from Proto-Germanic *segô, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (‘to cut’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut’
saw, sex, design, sign, risk, section, ship, sexual, seal, segment, sack, insect, scarlet, sawyer, sax, sickle, het, shingle, dissect, sich, seg, sedge, sigil, brassica, desiccation, scythe, sain, desiccant, 61 more
Today it means
noun An armhole (or, occasionally, a leghole) in tailoring and dressmaking.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle Scots say / scye