Shorn
/ʃɔːrn/noun
Past participle of shear, meaning cut or clipped off, especially of wool, hair, or vegetation.
Did you know?The same ancient root behind shorn also gave English shear and shears, and it ultimately traces back to a Proto-Indo-European base meaning “to cut,” the kind of word family that turns cutting into a whole linguistic lineage.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sker-
“to cut, split, or shear”
Old English
OE
sceran
“to cut, shear, or clip”
Old English
OE
scoren
“cut, sheared; past participle of sceran”
Middle English
ME
shorn
“cut off, clipped, or sheared”
Modern English
English
shorn
“cut or clipped, especially of wool, hair, or vegetation”