Etymology — The origins of English words

Borrowed from Latin sēpia (“cuttlefish”), from Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía). Cognate with Italian seppia, Portuguese siba, and Spanish sepia.

Borrowed from Egyptian Arabic شيشة (šīša), from Ottoman Turkish شیشه şişe, from Classical Persian شیشه (šīša, “glass, mirror”).

From Middle English screde [and other forms], a variant of shrede (“fragment, scrap; strip of cloth; strip cut off from a larger piece; band or thread woven into fabric; element, streak”) (whence shred (noun)), from Old English sċrēad, sċrēade (“a piece cut off; paring, shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudō (“a piece, shred; a cut, crack”), from *skraudaną (“to cut up, shred”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”). The English word is cognate with Old Frisian skrēd. Doublet of escrow, scroll, and shred.

First use appears c. 2000s, from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 山寨 (shānzhài), literally mountain fort, suggesting a lair of bandits or counterfeiters.

From Middle English ser, sere, seare, seer, seere, seir, seyr (“dry, withered; emaciated, shrivelled; brittle; bare; dead, lifeless; barren, useless”), from Old English sēar, sīere (“dry, withered; barren; sere”), from Proto-West Germanic *sauʀ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz (“dry, parched”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂sews-, *sh₂ews- (“to be dry”). Cognate with Dutch zoor (“dry and coarse”), Greek αὖος (ávos, “dry”), Lithuanian sausas (“dry”), Middle Low German sôr (Low German soor (“arid, dry”)), Old Church Slavonic соухъ (suχŭ, “dry”). Doublet of sear and sare.

From shop + front.

From shilling + -less.

From settle + -or.

From translingual Shigella + -osis; the former is from the name of Kiyoshi Shiga.

See shill.

From Late Latin sexangulāris, from sexangulus. By surface analysis, sex- + -angular. Piecewise doublet of hexangular.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σημειωτικός (sēmeiōtikós, “observant of signs”), ultimately derived from σῆμα (sêma, “mark, sign”). Compare semiotics.

From Middle English sepulture, sepultur, from Old French sepulture, from Latin sepultura.

From shell + -ie (diminutive suffix).

From Latin secāns, present participle of secō (“to cut”).

Borrowed from Arabic شَاوِرْمَا (šāwirmā), شَاوَرْمَا (šāwarmā), from Ottoman Turkish چویرمه (çevirme, “something that is spun or turned over”), verbal noun of چویرمك (çevirmek, “to turn over”) (modern Turkish çevirme and çevirmek).

From servo + system.

From a dialectal sense of scour, "rain shower", from Old Norse skúr (“shower”), + -y.

From Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρῐκός (sērĭkós), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), possibly ultimately from the Old Chinese word for silk. Doublet of silk and serge.

From scry + -er.

From secern + -ment.

From ship + builder.

From self + -like. Compare selfly.

Spelling out of the initials CB, for construction battalion, with the spelling probably influenced by the words sea (patrolled by the Navy) and bee (a symbol of industriousness).