Etymology

share

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Today it means: A portion of something, especially a portion given or allotted to someone. Full definition →

Middle English schare ← Old English sċearu ← Proto-West Germanic *skaru
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share · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)koréh₂
  2. Proto-Germanic*skarō
  3. Proto-West Germanic*skaru
  4. Old Englishsċearu
  5. Middle Englishschare
  6. English todayshare

From Middle English schare, schere, from Old English sċearu (“a cutting, shaving, a shearing, tonsure, part, division, share”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaru, from Proto-Germanic *skarō (“a division, detachment”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut, divide”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian skar, sker (“a share in a communal pasture”), Dutch schare (“share in property”), German Schar (“band, troop, party, company”), Icelandic skor (“department”). Compare shard, shear. Doublet of eschel.

share · noun, verb2

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)ker-“to cut”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*skaraz“ploughshare”
  3. Old English · inherited fromsċear
  4. Middle English · inherited fromschar
  5. English todayshare

From Middle English schar, schare, from Old English sċear, sċær (“ploughshare”), from Proto-Germanic *skaraz (“ploughshare”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Cognate with Dutch schaar (“ploughshare”), dialectal German Schar (“ploughshare”), Danish (plov)skær (“ploughshare”). More at shear.

Share · proper noun3

* As an English surname, perhaps a variant of Shear. * As a Serbo-Croatian surname, Americanized from Šare, Sare.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*skarō all →

eschel

Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.