scythe

Meanings

Noun

• An instrument for mowing grass, grain, etc. by hand, composed of a long, curving blade with a sharp concave edge, fastened to a long handle called a snath.
• A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.
• The tenth Lenormand card.

Verb

• To use a scythe.
• To cut with a scythe.
• To cut off as with a scythe; to mow.
• To attack or injure as if cutting.

Origin

• From Middle English sythe, sithe, from Old English sīþe, sīġþe, siġdi, from Proto-Germanic *sigiþiz, *sigiþō, derived from *seg-, from Proto-Indo-European *sek-.
• Germanic cognates include Low German Sicht ("scythe"), Dutch zicht ("sickle"), Icelandic sigð ("sickle"). Related to saw, which see.
• The silent c crept in in the early 15th century owing to pseudoetymological association with Medieval Latin scissor, from Latin scindere.
• The verb, which was first used in the intransitive sense, is from the noun.