scythe

Meaning

Noun

1. 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.
2. A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.
3. The tenth Lenormand card.

Verb

1. To use a scythe.
2. To cut with a scythe.
3. To cut off as with a scythe; to mow.
4. To attack or injure as if cutting.

Concepts

scythe

sickle

reap

mow

cut

harvest

war scythe

billhook

shears

glean

shear

instrument for mowing

lea

crop

bush hook

trim

small

cut grass

cut down

sword

suitability

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈsaɪð/

Etymology

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 pseudoetymological association with Medieval Latin scissor (“tailor, carver”), from Latin scindere (“to cut, rend, split”).
The verb, which was first used in the intransitive sense, is from the noun.