Etymograph

English

shave

Shave comes from Old English sċafan ‘to shave, scrape, shred, polish’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- ‘to cut, split, form, carve’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skabʰ-‘to cut, split, form, carve’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skabaną‘to scrape’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skaban‘to scrape, shave’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċafan‘to shave, scrape, shred, polish’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500shaven
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1667shave

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skabʰ-‘to cut, split, form, carve’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skabaną‘to scrape’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skaban‘to scrape, shave’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċafan‘to shave, scrape, shred, polish’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500shaven
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1667shave

Earliest quotation: 1667, John Milton, Book II: “Now shaves with level wing the deep.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- ‘to cut, split, form, carve’

scab, shambles, 13 more

Another origin of shave

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skabôreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150sceafa‘shave (tool), plane, paring knife’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500shave
  4. Englishtodayshave

Today it means

verb To make (the head, skin etc.) bald or (the hair) shorter by using a tool such as a razor or electric clippers to cut the hair close to the skin.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- / shave

Shirt and support for this word