Etymograph

English

shackle

Shackle comes from Middle English shakel ‘a fetter, shackle’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *skakulaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skakulazreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skakulreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċacul‘fetter, shackle’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500shakel‘a fetter, shackle’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1580shackle

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skakulazreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skakulreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċacul‘fetter, shackle’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500shakel‘a fetter, shackle’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1580shackle

Earliest quotation: 1580, Thomas Tusser, A Digression to Husbandlie Furniture: “Soles, fetters, ⁊ ſhackles, with horſelock and pad, /…”

The story

However, this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary because *skeg-, *skek- lack the meaning of attaching or fastening. Etymology 1 sense 3 (‘length of cable or chain equal to 12½ or 15 fathoms’) derives from the original distance between two shackles (etymology 1 sense 1.1.3) connecting lengths of cable or chain together.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *skeg- ‘to shake’

chic, 2 more

through Proto-Germanic *skakaną ‘to shake’

shake, 2 more

Another origin of shackle

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kek-‘to shake, stir’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skakaną‘to shake’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skakulaz‘a link in a chain’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skakulreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċacul
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schakel‘shackle, trevis’
  7. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500schakelen‘to shackle’
  8. Englishtodayshackle

Another origin of shackle

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kek-root as named
  2. English1500–presentshack‘variant of shake’
  3. Englishtodayshackle

Today it means

noun A restraint fitted over a human or animal appendage, such as an ankle, finger, or wrist, normally used in a pair joined by a chain.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *skakulaz / shackle

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