Etymology

shelve

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Today it means: To furnish (a place) with shelves; especially, to furnish (a library, etc.) with bookshelves. Full definition →

Middle English shelven
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shelve · verb, noun1

The verb is a back-formation from shelves, the plural of shelf (“flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk, etc., and used to display, store, or support objects”). The noun is derived from etymology 1, verb sense 2 (“(obsolete) to hang over or project like a shelf”).

shelve · verb2

  1. Middle English · inherited fromshelven“to separate (someone or something) from another thing, keep away”
  2. English todayshelve

From Late Middle English shelven (“to separate (someone or something) from another thing, keep away”); further etymology uncertain, possibly: * from shelf, shelfe (“shelf; cabinet, cupboard; grassy bank”) (though this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary); or * related to West Frisian skelf (“not level or straight, oblique”).

shelve · noun3

Treated as a singular form of shelves, the plural of shelf (“reef; sandbar; shoal”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.