sheep

English
A domestic sheep

Pronunciation
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ʃip/
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: shēp, IPA(key): /ʃiːp/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːp

Etymology 1

From Middle English sheep, scheep, schep, schepe, from Old English sċēap, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą (compare West Frisian skiep, North Frisian schäip, Dutch schaap, German Schaf), beside *keppô (compare Old Norse kjappi (“he-goat”), dialectal German Kippe (“newborn calf”)), of unknown origin. Perhaps from the same Scythian word (compare Ossetian цӕу (cæw, “goat”), Persian چپش‎ (čapiš, “yearling goat”))[1] which was borrowed into Albanian as cjap, sqap (“he-goat”) and into Slavic (compare Polish cap). After Kroonen, *skēpą is instead from the root of Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to scratch”) via Kluge's law.[2]

Noun

sheep (countable and uncountable, plural sheep)

  1. (countable) A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.
  2. (countable) A timid, shy person who is easily led by others.
  3. (countable, chiefly Christianity, chiefly plural) A religious adherent, a member of a congregation or religious community (compare flock).
    • 1990, Dave Mustaine, "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", Megadeth, Rust in Peace.
      And fools like me, who cross the sea and come to foreign lands / Ask the sheep, for their beliefs do you kill on God's command?
  4. (uncountable) Sheepskin leather.
  5. (countable, speech recognition) A person who is easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with goat.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations

See also

Further reading

Etymology 2

Noun

sheep

  1. (chiefly humorous) plural of shoop

References
  1. Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, s.vv. "*keppōn", "*skēpan" (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 213, 340
  2. Guus Kroonen (2011), The Proto-Germanic n-stems: a study in diachronic morphophonology , Rodopi, →ISBN.

Anagrams

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English scēap, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą beside *keppôn, of unknown origin.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ʃeːp/, /ʃɛːp/

Noun

sheep (plural sheep)

  1. sheep

Descendants

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English sheep, scheep, schep, schepe, from Old English scēap, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [ʃip]

Noun

sheep (plural sheeps)

  1. sheep (woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis)

Alternative forms
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