Shafted
/ˈʃæf.tɪd/noun
Made into or fitted with a shaft; also slang for being badly cheated or screwed over.
Did you know?The insult sense of “shafted” grew from the older physical idea of being fitted with a shaft, but English also has the darker word family of “shaft” meaning a spear or arrow shaft, which keeps the image of force and injury alive.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*skēbʰ-
“to cut, split, or scrape (a proposed ancestral root behind Germanic shaft-forms)”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*skaftą
“a pole, handle, or shaft”
Old English
OE
sceaft
“a pole, rod, spear-shaft, or handle”
Middle English
ME
shaft
“a long rod, spear-shaft, or arrow-shaft”
Modern English
English
shafted
“fitted with a shaft; later, slang for being cheated or treated unfairly”