Etymograph

English

sheep

Sheep comes from Middle English schep, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *skēpą.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skēpąreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skāpreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċēap
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schep
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1955sheep

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skēpąreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skāpreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċēap
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schep
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1955sheep

Earliest quotation: 1955, D. S. Barrie, Railways of the Bridgend District: “There is much sad evidence, too, of the spoliation…”

The story

Inherited from Middle English schep, schepe, from Anglian Old English sċēp (West Saxon sċēap), from Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą, of unknown origin.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Perhaps from the same Scythian word (compare Ossetian цӕу (cæw, “goat”), Persian چپش (čapiš, “yearling goat”)) which was borrowed into Albanian as cjap, sqap (‘buck’) and into Slavic (compare Polish cap). After Kroonen, *skēpą is instead from the root of Proto-Germanic *skabaną (‘to scratch’) via Kluge's law.

Linked words

through Proto-West Germanic *skāp

shapeless

through Old English sċēap

shape, 1 more

Today it means

noun A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *skēpą / sheep

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