scythe
/ˈsaɪð/ noun, verb
Forms scythes scything scythed sithe sythe zive
- noun An instrument for mowing grass, grain, etc. by hand, composed of a long, curving blade with a sharp concave edge, fastened to a long handle called a snath.
- noun (historical) A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.
- noun (cartomancy) The tenth Lenormand card.
- verb (intransitive) To use a scythe.
- verb (transitive) To cut with a scythe.
- verb (transitive) To cut off as with a scythe; to mow.
- verb (intransitive, figurative, often with through) To attack or injure as if cutting.
Etymology
From Middle English sythe, sithe, from Old English sīþe, sīgþe, sigdi (“sickle”), from Proto-West Germanic *sigiþi, from Proto-Germanic *sigiþiz, *sigiþō, derived from *seg- (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).
Immediate Germanic cognates include Middle Low German sēgede, Dutch zicht, Icelandic sigð (all “sickle”). More distantly related with Dutch zeis, German Sense (both “scythe”). Also akin to English saw, which see.
The silent c crept in during the early 15th century owing to folk-etymological association with Medieval Latin scissor (“tailor, carver”), from Latin scindō (“to cut, rend, split”).
The verb, which was first used in the intransitive sense, is from the noun.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An instrument for mowing grass, grain, or the like, by hand, composed of a long, curving blade, with a sharp edge, made fast to a long handle, called a snath, which is bent into a form convenient for use. The sharp-edged scythe shears up the spiring grass. Dryden.
- noun A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.
- verb To cut with a scythe; to cut off as with a scythe; to mow. [Obs.]
Etymology [OE. sithe, AS. si\'ebe, sigthe; akin to Icel. sigthr a sickle, LG. segd, seged, seed, seid, OHG. segansa sickle, scythe, G. sense scythe, and to E. saw a cutting instrument. See Saw.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “scythe”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details