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shrift [shrift 词源字典]: shrift: see shrive
[shrift etymology, shrift origin, 英语词源]
shrimp: shrimp: [14] The shrimp’s name appears to echo its small size. It was probably borrowed from some Low German source, and its possible relatives include Middle Low German schrempen ‘shrink, wrinkle’ and modern German schrumpfen ‘shrivel, shrink’. Its use for a ‘tiny person’ is virtually as old in English as its application to the crustacean, and probably goes right back to its original source.
shrive: shrive: [OE] Shrive ‘hear someone’s confession’ goes back ultimately to Latin scrībere ‘write’ (source of English scribe, script, etc). This was borrowed into prehistoric West Germanic as *skrīban, whose direct descendants are German schreiben and Dutch schrijven ‘write’. But it also developed a specialized sense ‘prescribe penances’, and it is this that has given English shrive.

Today the word is best known in the form of shrove, its past tense, which is used in Shrove Tuesday [15] (an allusion to the practice of going to confession at the beginning of Lent), and the derived noun shrift ‘penance, confession’ [OE] (the expression short shrift originally referred to the short period of time allowed to someone about to be executed to say their confession).
=> scribe, script, shrift, shrove
shroud: shroud: [OE] Shroud originally meant simply ‘garment’ – a sense which survived into the early modern English period (‘My princely robes are laid aside, whose glittering pomp Diana’s shrouds supplies’, Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe, Dido Queen of Carthage 1594). Not until the late 16th century did the modern meaning ‘winding-sheet’ begin to emerge. The word derives ultimately from the prehistoric West Germanic base *skraud-, *skreud-, *skrud- ‘cut’ (source also of English shred).
=> shred
Shrove Tuesday: Shrove Tuesday: see shrive
shut: shut: [OE] Shut comes ultimately from the same prehistoric Germanic base (*skaut-, *skeut-, *skut- ‘project’) that produced English shoot, and its underlying etymological reference is to the ‘shooting’ of a bolt across a door to fasten it. Its immediate West Germanic ancestor was *skuttjan, which also produced Dutch schutten ‘obstruct’. In Old English this became scyttan, which if it had evolved unchecked would have given modern English shit. For reasons of delicacy, perhaps, the West Midlands form shut was drafted into the general language in the 16th century.
=> sheet, shoot, shot, shout, shuttle
shuttle: shuttle: [OE] A shuttle is etymologically something that is ‘shot’. Indeed, the word’s Old English precursor scytel meant ‘arrow’ or ‘dart’. It comes ultimately from the prehistoric Germanic base *skaut-, *skeut-, *skut- ‘project’, which also produced English shoot and shut. There is a gap between the disappearance of Old English scytel and the emergence of shuttle in the 14th century, but they are presumably the same word (a shuttle being something that is thrown or ‘shot’ across a loom).
=> shut
shy: shy: Shy ‘timid, reserved’ [OE] goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *skeukhwaz ‘afraid’ (source also of English eschew and skew). It is generally assumed that shy ‘throw’ [18] must have come from it, but the exact nature of the relationship between the two words is not clear. The original application of the verb seems to have been specifically to the throwing of sticks at chickens, and it has been suggested, not altogether convincingly, that its use alludes to the notion of a ‘shy’ cockerel that refuses to fight (there was an 18th- and early 19th-century slang term shy-cock which meant ‘cowardly person’).
=> eschew, skew
shyster: shyster: [19] Shyster ‘unscrupulous lawyer’ originated in the USA in the 1840s. It is generally supposed to come from the name of one Scheuster, a New York lawyer of that era who was constantly being rebuked by judges for his sharp practices. An alternative explanation, however, is that it represents an alteration of German scheisser, literally ‘shitter’.
Siamese twins: Siamese twins: [19] The original ‘Siamese twins’ were two males, Chang and Eng (1811– 74), born in Siam (now Thailand), who were joined together at the hip. No attempt was made to separate them, and they lived to a respectable age; each married and fathered children. In an age unembarrassed to be interested in ‘freaks’, they gained considerable public attention, and by the 1850s Siamese twins seems to have established itself as a generic term. The late 20th century’s aversion from associating physical defects with racial or national groups has ousted it in favour of ‘conjoined twins’.
sick: sick: [OE] The ultimate origins of sick are a mystery. It has been traced back to a hypothetical prehistoric Germanic *seukaz, but beyond that nothing certain is known. Its modern relatives are German siech, Dutch ziek, Swedish sjuk, and Danish syg.
sickle: sickle: [OE] A sickle is etymologically a ‘cutting’ tool. Like its close relatives German sichel and Dutch zikkel, it originated in a prehistoric Germanic borrowing of Latin secula ‘sickle’. This was a derivative of the verb secāre ‘cut’ (source of English section, sector, etc), which in turn went back to the Indo-European base *sek- ‘cut’ (source also of English scythe).
=> scythe, section, segment
side: side: [OE] The etymological meaning of side appears to be the ‘long’ surface of something (as opposed to the ends or the top or bottom, which are the ‘shorter’ or ‘narrower’ surfaces). The word goes back, together with German seite, Dutch zijde, Swedish sida, and Danish side, to a prehistoric Germanic *sīthō, which was probably derived from the adjective *sīthaz ‘long, deep, low’ (source of Swedish sid ‘long’).
sight: sight: [OE] Sight is a derivative of the prehistoric Germanic base *sekh-, which also produced English see. In the case of its Germanic relatives, German gesicht, Dutch gezicht, Swedish ansikte, and Danish ansigt, the notion of ‘sight’ has led on via ‘appearance’ to ‘face’.
=> see
sign: sign: [13] Sign comes via Old French signe from Latin signum ‘mark’. It already had the meaning ‘mark denoting something’ in Latin, and it was in this sense that it entered English, gradually ousting the native word token. The verb sign goes back ultimately to the Latin derivative signāre ‘mark’. English acquired it in the 14th century, and first used it for ‘write one’s name’ in the 15th century.

Other related forms in English include assign [14], consign [15], design, ensign [14], insignia [17], resign [14] (in which the prefix re- has the force of ‘un-’), seal ‘wax impression, fastening’, signal, signatory [17], signature [16], signet [14], significant [16], and signify [13].

The ultimate source of Latin signum is uncertain. It was once assumed to go back to the Indo-European base *sek- ‘cut’ (source of English saw, section, etc), as if it denoted etymologically a ‘cut mark’, but now Indo-European *seq- ‘point out’, hence ‘say, tell’ (source of English say) is viewed as a more likely ancestor.
=> assign, consign, design, ensign, insignia, resign, seal, signal, signature, significant
signal: signal: [16] Latin signālis meant ‘of a sign’ (it was derived from signum ‘mark, token’, source of English sign). It came to be used as a noun, and passed via medieval Latin signāle into Old French as seignal. This was later relatinized into signal, in which form it was taken over by English. The adjective signal ‘conspicuous’ came from the same ultimate source, but via a more circuitous route. The Italian version of the noun signal is segnale. From it was derived the verb segnalare ‘make famous’, whose past participle segnalato gave French signalé – whence English signal.
=> sign
signor: signor: see sir
silent: silent: [16] Silent comes from the present participle of Latin silēre ‘be silent’. It is not clear what the origins of this were, although it seems likely to be related in some way to Gothic anasilan, a verb which denoted the wind dying down, and also perhaps to Latin dēsinere ‘stop’ (in which case its underlying meaning would be ‘stop speaking’). The Latin-derived noun silentium actually reached English much earlier than the adjective, as silence [13].
silhouette: silhouette: [18] The term silhouette commemorates the name of the French author and politician Étienne de Silhouette (1709–67). As finance minister in the late 1750s he gained a reputation for cheeseparing, and silhouette came to be used for anything skimped. One account of the application of the word to a ‘simple cut-out picture’ is that it carries on this notion of ‘simplicity’ or ‘lack of finish’, but an alternative theory is that Silhouette himself was in the habit of making such pictures. The metaphorical use of the term for a ‘dark image against a bright background’ emerged in the mid-19th century.
silicon: silicon: [19] Silicon was coined in 1817 by the British chemist Thomas Thomson. Like the slightly earlier silica, it was based on Latin silex ‘flint’. From the same source comes silicone, which dates from the 1860s.