shale

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*(s)kelH-“to split, cut”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*skalō
3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*skalu
4. Old English · inherited fromsċealu“shell, husk, pod”
5. Middle English · inherited fromschale“shell, husk; scale”
6. English todayshale

From Middle English schale (“shell, husk; scale”), from Old English sċealu (“shell, husk, pod”), from Proto-West Germanic *skalu, from Proto-Germanic *skalō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”), from *(s)kel- (“to split, cleave”). See also West Frisian skaal (“dish”), Dutch schaal (“shell”), schalie (“shale”), German Schale (“husk, pod”); also Lithuanian skalà (“splinter”), Old Church Slavonic скала (skala, “rock, stone”), Polish skała (“rock”), Albanian halë (“fish bone, splinter”), Sanskrit कल (kalá, “small part”); also Hittite [script needed] (iškalla, “to tear apart, slit open”), Lithuanian skélti (“to split”), Ancient Greek σκάλλω (skállō, “to hoe, harrow”). Doublet of scale. See also shell.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• 21st c. The shale oil and shale gas segment of the oil and gas industry.