sheep

Meaning

Noun

• A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.
• Ovies aries, the most well known species of Ovis.
• A timid, shy person who is easily led by others.
• A religious adherent, a member of a congregation or religious community (compare flock).
• Sheepskin leather.
• A person who is easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with goat.

Origin

• From Middle English schep, schepe, from Old English sċēap, from Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą (compare West Frisian skiep, North Frisian schäip, Dutch schaap, German Schaf), beside *keppô (compare Old Norse kjappi, dialectal German Kippe), of unknown origin. Perhaps from the same Scythian word (compare Ossetian цӕу, Persian چپش) which was borrowed into Albanian as cjap, sqap and into Slavic (compare Polish cap). After Kroonen, *skēpą is instead from the root of Proto-Germanic *skabaną via Kluge's law.