Shear
/ʃɪr/noun
To cut or clip off with a sharp instrument, or to shear wool from an animal.
Did you know?Shear shares a deep Indo-European root with words for scissors, separation, and even the idea of cutting that survives across Germanic languages.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sker-
“to cut, to separate”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*skeraną
“to cut, shear”
Old English
OE
scearan
“to cut, shears; clip wool”
Middle English
ME
sheren
“to cut, clip, trim”
Modern English
English
shear
“to cut or remove by cutting, especially wool from sheep”