Meanings
plural scyes
- An armhole (or, occasionally, a leghole) in tailoring and dressmaking.
on the seat lay folded a pair of blue cotton pants creased at the groin, their short fly zippered open, and over them a white underbrief, the sinus of its pouch humped between elliptical scyes.
1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*sek-“to cut”
- Proto-Germanic*segô
- Old Norsesegi
- Middle Scotssay
- Scotssey“armhole, cut of beef”
- Englishscye
Borrowed from Scots sey (“armhole, cut of beef”), from Middle Scots say, possibly from Old Norse segi, sigi (“chunk, bite”), from Proto-Germanic *segô, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).
More words from Scots, Middle Scots, Old Norse
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with scye
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Cite this entry
scye. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scye
“scye.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scye. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “scye,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scye.
Source: scye on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.