sewel

See also: šəw̕əɬ

English

Etymology

From Early Middle English sheueles (“scarecrow”) [and other forms]; probably from Old English *scīewels, from sċīen (“to be frightened or startled; to recoil in fear”) (from Proto-West Germanic *skiuhijan (“to dread; to avoid, shun”), from Proto-Germanic *skeuhaz (“frightened; bashful, coy, shy, timid; cautious, reserved”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-, *skūbʰ- (“to drive, move forward, push”) or *(s)kewH- (“to cover; to hide”)) + -els (suffix forming masculine nouns). Doublet of shy.

Cognates

• Middle English asheuelen, asheulen (verb)
• Middle Low German schūwelse
• Middle High German schiusel, schusel (modern German Scheusal (“beast; monster”))
• Old High German sciuhen (Middle High German schiuhen, schiuwen, German scheuen (“to scare”))

Noun

sewel (plural sewels)

1. A scarecrow, generally made of feathers tied to a string, hung up to prevent deer from breaking into a place. [from mid 14th c.]
   • 1768, John Cartwright, Remarks on the Situation of the Aborigines of Newfoundland [...]:

     Their sewels are made by tying a tassel of birch rind , formed like the wing of a paper kite , to the small end of a slight stick , about six feet in length. These sticks are pricked into the ground about ten or a dozen yards apart

Alternative forms

• shewel

Further reading

• “sewel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• weels, lewes, Lewes, Elwes

Cahuilla

Noun

séwel

1. A bush which can be used as soap. Probably Atriplex polycarpa