The story
- Frankish · derived from*skiuhijan“to dread, shun, avoid”
- Anglo-Norman · derived fromeschiver
- Middle English · inherited fromeschewen
- English todayeschew
From Middle English eschewen, from Anglo-Norman eschiver, (third-person present eschiu), from Frankish *skiuhijan (“to dread, shun, avoid”); thus a doublet of skew. For the pronunciation with /ʃ/, compare the development of marshal from Middle English marschal (/marsˈt͡ʃaːl/) or Middle English myssheve, variant of myschef (“hardship”). Variants in /sk/ are either from unattested Middle English *eskewen (from Old Northern French eskiver; compare skew) or are spelling pronunciations. See also French esquiver.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.