Etymograph

English

sheet

Sheet comes from Middle English schete, partly from Old English sċīete ‘linen sheet’, from Proto-Germanic *skautijǭ, from PIE *(s)kewd-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kewd-‘to throw, shoot’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skautijǭreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċīete‘a sheet of linen’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schete‘linen cloth’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604sheet

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kewd-‘to throw, shoot’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skautijǭreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċīete‘a sheet of linen’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schete‘linen cloth’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604sheet

Earliest quotation: c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice: “If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- ‘to throw, shoot, pursue, rush’

shut, scoot, scud, 2 more

Today it means

noun A thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- / sheet

Shirt and support for this word