"S" Word Origins

shuffleboard

Origin

From an older form "shovillaborde," a change of "shove-board" — literally "shove" plus "board."

shufflepuck

Origin

From shuffle + puck.

Shukla

Sanskrit

Borrowed from Sanskrit शुक्ल (śukla).

shula

Origin

Clipping of Shulamith, Shulamit, Shulamis, diminutives of Hebrew שולמית \ שׁוּלַמִּית (shulamít).

shulamit

Origin

From Hebrew שולמית.

shulamith

Origin

From Hebrew שולמית.

Shum

Origin

Borrowed from Cantonese 岑 (sam4) or Cantonese 沈 (sam2), when the initial was still [ɕ] during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

shumai

Origin

Borrowed from Japanese 焼売 (shūmai), from Cantonese 燒賣 /烧卖 (siu¹ maai⁶⁻²).

shun

Old English

From Old English sċunian, "to shun, fear, avoid," of uncertain deeper origin.

shunt

Middle English

From Middle English words meaning "to jerk, swerve, dodge," possibly linked to "shun."

shura

Arabic

From Arabic shūrā, "consultation."

shush

Origin

An imitative word, related to "shh" and "hush."

shut

Old English

From Old English scyttan, "to bolt or shut," related to the idea of shooting a bolt across a door.

shutdown

Origin

From the phrasal verb "shut down."

shutout

Origin

Deverbal from shut out.

shutter

Origin

From "shut" plus the suffix "-er."

shutterbug

Origin

From shutter + bug, from their tendency to work the camera's shutter frequently.

shuttle

Old English

From an Old English word for a weaving tool that shoots back and forth across a loom.

shuttlecock

Origin

From shuttle (from the back-and-forth sense of the word originating with loom weaving) + cock (from resemblance to a male bird's plume of tail feathers).

shuttlecraft

Origin

From "shuttle" plus "-craft," as in "aircraft."

shy

Old English

From Old English sceoh, "timid, easily frightened."

Shyam

Sanskrit

Borrowed from Sanskrit श्याम (śyāma).

shyanne

Origin

Respelling of Cheyenne.

shylock

Origin

From Shylock, the moneylender character in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice."

shyness

Origin

From "shy" plus the suffix "-ness."

shyster

German

Of disputed American origin, possibly linked to an old sense of "shy" meaning disreputable, or to a German word meaning someone worthless.

SI

French

Borrowed from French, from the International System of Units abbreviation "SI."

sia

Malay

Borrowed into Singlish from Malay sial, an exclamation of dismay or bad luck.

Siam

Portuguese

From Portuguese, ultimately from the Thai name for the region.

Siamese

Origin

From "Siam" plus the suffix "-ese."

sian

Origin

From Hokkien siān.

siao

Origin

From Hokkien siáu, "mad; crazy."

sib

Origin

From Middle English sib, from Old English sibb (“related, akin, sib”), from Proto-Germanic *sibjaz (“related”), from Proto-Indo-European *sebʰ-, *swebʰ- (“one's own”). Cognate with West Frisian besibbe (“related”), Middle Dutch sibbe (“related”), Middle Low German sibbe (“related”), Middle High German sippe (“related”), Icelandic sifi (“related”).

Siberia

Russian · 1500

Adopted in the 16th century from Russian Sibir, originally the name of a Tatar fortress that gave its name to the surrounding khanate and, eventually, the whole region.

Siberian

Origin

From "Siberia" plus the suffix "-an."

sibilant

Origin

From Latin sībilāns, present active participle of sībilō (“to hiss”).

sibilate

Origin

Borrowed from Latin sībilātus, past participle of sībilō. Doublet of siffle.

sibling

Old English · 1903

Revived around 1903 from the Old English word for "relative, kinsman," combining "sib" (kin) with "-ling."

sibylline

Origin

From Latin sibyllinus, Sibillinus, from Sibylla. By surface analysis, sibyl + -ine.

sic

Latin

A learned borrowing from Latin sic, meaning "thus, so."

sicario

Spanish

Spanish for 'hired killer', from Latin sicarius 'assassin, dagger-man', from sica 'a curved dagger'.

sice

Origin

From Middle English sys, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French sis, sies. Doublet of six.

Sichuan

Chinese

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 四川 (Sìchuān), a contraction of the Southern Song 四川路 (Sìchuān lù).

Sicilian

Latin

From Latin Sicilia (Sicily) plus the adjective ending "-an".

Sicily

Middle English

From Middle English Sicilie, Sicilye, from Old English Sicilia, from Latin Sicilia, from Ancient Greek Σικελία (Sikelía), from Σίκελος (Síkelos, “Sicel”). Doublet of Sicilia.

sick

Old English

From Old English seoc ("ill"), from a Germanic root meaning to be troubled or afflicted. The slang sense meaning "excellent" is a much later flip, similar to how "wicked" and "terrific" also came to mean something positive.

sickbay

Origin

A compound of "sick" and "bay" (a section or compartment), originally naval terminology.

sicken

Middle English

From Middle English sekenen, built from "sick" plus the verb-forming suffix "-en".