shear

shear · verb, noun, adjective¹

1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker-
2. Proto-Germanic*skeraną
3. Proto-West Germanic*skeran
4. Old Englishsċieran
5. Middle Englishscheren
6. English todayshear

From Middle English sheren, scheren, from Old English sċieran (“to shear; to shave”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeran, from Proto-Germanic *skeraną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Cognate with West Frisian skarre, Low German, Dutch, and German scheren, Danish skære, Norwegian Bokmål skjære, Norwegian Nynorsk skjera, Swedish skära, Faroese and Icelandic skera, (borrowed from Germanic) Finnish keritä; and (from Indo-European) with Kamkata-viri ċarë́- (“to chop”), Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “to cut off”), Latin caro (“flesh”), Albanian shqerr (“to tear, cut”), harr (“to cut, to mow”), Lithuanian ski̇̀rti (“separate”), Welsh ysgar (“separate”). See also sharp.

Shear · proper noun²

1. Middle English · derived fromschyre“pure, bright, fair”
2. English todayShear

From Middle English schyre (“pure, bright, fair”). Also a German surname, variant of Schier, itself a variant of Scheuer or from a cognate of the Middle English word.

Words from the same roots