Etymology

shave

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Today it means: To make (the head, skin etc.) bald or (the hair) shorter by using a tool such as a razor or electric clippers to cut the hair close to the skin. Full definition →

Middle English shaven ← Old English sċafan ← Proto-West Germanic *skaban
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shave · verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*skabʰ-“to cut, split, form, carve”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*skabaną“to scrape”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*skaban
  4. Old English · inherited fromsċafan“to shave, scrape, shred, polish”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromshaven
  6. English todayshave

Inherited from Middle English shaven, schaven, from Old English sċafan (“to shave, scrape, shred, polish”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaban, from Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to scrape”), from Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- (“to cut, split, form, carve”). Cognate with West Frisian skave, Dutch schaven, Low German schaven, German schaben, Danish skave, Norwegian Nynorsk skava, Swedish skava, Icelandic skafa, Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (skaban), all roughly “to scrape, chafe, shave, plane, remove the outer lay of”.

shave · noun2

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*skabô
  2. Old English · inherited fromsceafa
  3. Middle English · inherited fromshave
  4. English todayshave

From Middle English shave, from Old English sceafa, from Proto-Germanic *skabô.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*skabaną all →

scrab

Proto-Indo-European*skabʰ- all →

scabrousscrab

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.