Scythe - Etymology, Origin & Meaning (original) (raw)

Origin and history of scythe

"long, curving blade made fast to a handle, convenient for swinging, and used in mowing or reaping," Middle English sithe, sythe, from Old English siðe, sigði, from Proto-Germanic *segitho "sickle" (source also of Middle Low German segede, Middle Dutch sichte, Old High German segensa, German Sense), from PIE root *sek- "to cut."

The sc- spelling appears by early 15c. (the earliest surviving use of it is in an English word in a document written in Latin), from influence of Latin scissor "carver, cutter" and scindere "to cut." Compare French scier "saw," a false spelling from sier, and also compare scent (v.), scion. Since the Middle Ages, it was carried by personifications of Time and Death.

scythe(v.)

1570s, "use a scythe;" 1590s "to mow;" from scythe (n.). By 1897 as "move with the sweeping motion of one using a scythe." Related: Scythed; scything.

Entries linking to scythe

late 14c., senten, originally a hunting term, "to find the scent of, perceive by smell," from Old French sentir "to feel, smell, touch, taste; realize, perceive; make love to," from Latin sentire " to feel, perceive by the senses; give one's opinion or sentiments" (see sense (n.)).

The unetymological -c- appeared 17c., perhaps in this case by influence of ascent, descent, etc., or by influence of science. But such an insertion was a pattern in early Modern English and also yielded scythe and for a time threatened to establish scite and scituate.

Figurative use from 1550s. The transitive sense "impregnate with an odor, make fragrant, perfume" is from 1690s. Related: Scented; scenting.

c. 1300, sioun, "a shoot or twig," especially one for grafting, also figurative, from Old French sion, cion "descendant; shoot, twig; offspring" (12c., Modern French scion, Picard chion), a word of uncertain origin. OED rejects derivation from Old French scier "to saw" (as if originally "a sawing, a cutting") on formal grounds. Perhaps it is a diminutive of a Frankish word, from Proto-Germanic *kidon-, from PIE *geie- "to sprout, split, open" (see chink (n.1) ).

The meaning "an heir, child, a descendant" in English is from mid-14c., a figurative use. The proper spelling would be sion; the -c- in the French word, and hence in the English, is unetymological, as it is in scythe, apparently by influence of Latin scindere "to cut." Fem. form scioness seems to have been used mostly for humorous effect.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cut." It might form all or part of: bisect; dissect; hacksaw; insect; intersect; resect; saw (n.1) "cutting tool;" Saxon; scythe; secant; secateurs; sect; section; sector; sedge; segment; skin; skinflint; skinny; transect.

It might also be the source of: Hittite shakk- "to know, pay attention to;" Latin secare "to cut," sectio "a cutting, cutting off, division;" Old Church Slavonic seko, sešti "to cut," sečivo "ax, hatchet," Russian seč' "to cut to pieces;" Lithuanian įsėkti "to engrave, carve;" Albanian šate "mattock;" Old Saxon segasna, Old English sigðe "scythe;" Old English secg "sword," seax "knife, short sword;" Old Irish doescim "I cut."

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