Etymology
1. O.E.
sceran, scieran (class IV strong verb; past tense
scear, pp.
scoren), from P.Gmc.
*sker- "to cut" (cf. O.N., O.Fris.
skera, Du.
scheren, Ger.
scheren "to shear"), from PIE
*(s)ker- "to cut, to scrape, to hack" (cf. Skt.
krnati "hurts, wounds, kills,"
krntati "cuts;" Hittite
karsh- "to cut off;" Gk.
keirein "to cut, shear;" Lith.
skiriu "to separate;" O.Ir.
scaraim "I separate;" Welsh
ysgar "to separate,"
ysgyr "fragment").
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-der.
4. Proto-Germanic *skeraną
5. Proto-West Germanic *skeran
6. Old English sċieran
7. Middle English scheren
8. English shear
9. From Middle English sheren, scheren, from Old English sċieran (“to shear; to shave”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeran, from Proto-Germanic *skeraną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”).
10. Cognate with West Frisian skarre, Low German, Dutch, and German scheren, Danish skære, Norwegian Bokmål skjære, Norwegian Nynorsk skjera, Swedish skära, Faroese and Icelandic skera, (borrowed from Germanic) Finnish keritä; and (from Indo-European) with Kamkata-viri ċarë́- (“to chop”), Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “to cut off”), Latin caro (“flesh”), Albanian shqerr (“to tear, cut”), harr (“to cut, to mow”), Lithuanian ski̇̀rti (“separate”), Welsh ysgar (“separate”). See also sharp. See: Proto-Germanic '
*skeraną', Danish '
skære', Norwegian '
skjære', Norwegian, nynorsk '
skjera', Swedish '
skära', Finnish with old forms '
keritä', Latin '
caro'.
Verbs referencing "shear"
English
shore, German, old spelling
scheren, Valencian
esquilar, Portuguese
esquilar, Spanish
esquilar, Danish
skære, Esperanto
ŝiri, Norwegian, nynorsk
skjera, Old Irish
scaraid, Luxembourgish
schieren, Cimbrian sèrran, Welsh
ysgaru.