English
shelve
Shelve comes from English shelf ‘flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles…’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- ‘to cut’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kelH-‘to cut’root as named
- English1500–presentshelf‘flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1591shelve
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kelH-‘to cut’root as named
- English1500–presentshelf‘flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1591shelve
Earliest quotation: c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona: “Her chamber is aloft, far from the ground, /…”
The story
The verb is a back-formation from shelves, the plural of shelf (‘flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk, etc., and used to display, store, or support objects’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- ‘to cut’
half, skill, skull, shield, shell, shale, shilling, halter, schilling, shoal, hapa, halve, schelling, 14 more
Another origin of shelve
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500shelven‘to separate from another thing, keep away’
- Englishtodayshelve
Today it means
verb To furnish (a place) with shelves; especially, to furnish (a library, etc.) with bookshelves.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- / shelve