scythe

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A tool with a long curved blade and a long handle, used for cutting grass or grain by hand.

   The farmer swung his scythe to cut the tall grass.

2. 2
   verb

   To cut grass or crops with a scythe.

   They scythed the wheat field at the end of summer.

3. 3
   verb

   To cut through or attack as if with a scythe.

   The sharp wind scythed through their thin coats.

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…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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