scissor

C2+ Topic:Actions & Processes

US /ˈsɪzɚ/ UK /ˈsɪzə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

verb
to cut with shears; to move with a crossing, snipping action

The dancer scissored her legs gracefully across the stage.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to cut with shears; to move... cut snip clip shear trim

Word family

Forms scissoredscissoring

Derived forms scissors

Related forms scissorscisor

Etymology

A back-formation from scissors, from Old French cisoires, from Late Latin cisoria, the plural of cisorium ('a cutting instrument'), from caedere ('to cut'); the sc- spelling arose by mistaken association with Latin scindere ('to cut').

cisorium Latin caedere Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Actions & Processes Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# scissor

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈsɪzɚ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈsɪzə/

## Meanings
1. to cut with shears; to move with a crossing, snipping action

## Examples
- The dancer scissored her legs gracefully across the stage.

## Synonyms
- cut
- snip
- clip
- shear
- trim

## Derived Forms
- scissors

## Related Forms
- scissors
- cisor

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: cisorium
- Root: caedere

## Etymology
A back-formation from scissors, from Old French cisoires, from Late Latin cisoria, the plural of cisorium ('a cutting instrument'), from caedere ('to cut'); the sc- spelling arose by mistaken association with Latin scindere ('to cut').

## AI Etymology
Scissor is a back-formation from scissors, from Old French cisoires, from Late Latin cisoria, the plural of cisorium ('a cutting instrument'), from caedere ('to cut'); the sc- spelling arose by mistaken association with Latin scindere ('to cut'). The historical chain includes Latin cisorium and Latin caedere. Older glosses in the chain include "a cutting instrument" and "to cut", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, scissor is best read as back-formation and borrowing, yielding an English verb and noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a verb and noun, with the sense "to cut with shears; to move with a crossing, snipping action". English derivatives include scissors; related forms include scissors and cisor. The result is an English verb and noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Actions & Processes
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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