shale

Meaning

Noun

1. A shell or husk; a cod or pod.
2. A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.

Verb

To take off the shell or coat of.

Synonyms

slate

schist

moot

pin

shiver

spool

torbanite

schistous clay

silt rock

argillaceous rock

clay stone

clay slate

cleaving stone

shale rock

mesh gauge

claystone

mesh bar

cowl

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʃeɪl/

Etymology

From Middle English schale (“shell, husk; scale”), from Old English sċealu (“shell, husk, pod”), from Proto-Germanic *skalō (compare West Frisian skaal (“dish”), Dutch schaal (“shell”), schalie (“shale”), German Schale (“husk, pod”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”) (compare Lithuanian skalà (“splinter”), Old Church Slavonic скала (skala, “rock, stone”), Polish skała (“rock”), Albanian halë (“fish bone, splinter”), Sanskrit कल (kalá, “small part”)), from *(s)kel- (“to split, cleave”) (compare Hittite [script needed] (iškalla, “to tear apart, slit open”), Lithuanian skélti (“to split”), Ancient Greek σκάλλω (skállō, “to hoe, harrow”)). Doublet of scale. See also shell.