sheaf

Meanings

Noun

• A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.
• Any collection of things bound together.
• A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.
• A quantity of arrows, usually twenty-four.
• A sheave.
• An abstract construct in topology that associates data to the open sets of a topological space, together with well-defined restrictions from larger to smaller open sets, subject to the condition that compatible data on overlapping open sets corresponds, via the restrictions, to a unique datum on the union of the open sets.

Verb

• To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves
• To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.

Origin

• From Middle English scheef, from Old English sċēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *skaub, from Proto-Germanic *skauba-.
• Akin to West Frisian skeaf, Dutch schoof, German Schaub, Old Norse skauf ("a fox's tail"). Compare further Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐍆𐍄 ("hair of the head"), German Schopf ("tuft").