Meanings
alternative shairn · alternative shearn · alternative shern
- ScotlanduncountableThe dung or manure of cattle or sheep.
right between the byre and the stable and the barn on one side and the house on the other was the cattle-court and right in the middle of that the midden, high and yellow with dung and straw and sharn, and Mistress Strachan could never forgive Peesie's Knapp because of that awful smell it had.
1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 19
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*sker-“dung, manure”
- Proto-Germanic*skarną“manure”
- Proto-West Germanic*skarn
- Old Englishsċearn“sharn, dung, muck, filth”
- Middle Englishschern
- Englishsharn
From Middle English schern, from Old English sċearn (“sharn, dung, muck, filth”), from Proto-West Germanic *skarn, from Proto-Germanic *skarną (“manure”), from Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“dung, manure”). Cognate with North Frisian skern (“dung, manure”), Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic skarn (“dung”), German Harn (“urine”). Doublet of skarn.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with sharn
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
sharn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sharn
“sharn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sharn. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sharn,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sharn.
Source: sharn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.