Online Etymology Dictionary

sheepish: c.1200, "resembling a sheep in some characteristic," from sheep. The sense of "bashful" first is recorded 1693.
sheepshank: 1675, "leg of a sheep," from sheep + shank. Attested earlier in transf. sense of "type of sailor's knot used to shorten a rope without cutting it" (1627).
sheepskin: c.1200, "the skin of a sheep," from sheep + skin (n.). Meaning "diploma" dates from 1804; so called because formerly made of sheepskin parchment.
sheep: O.E. sceap, scep, from W.Gmc. *skæpan (cf. O.S. scap, O.Fris. skep, M.L.G. schap, M.Du. scaep, Du. schaap, O.H.G. scaf, Ger. Schaf), of unknown origin. Not found in Scand. or Goth., and with no known cognates outside Gmc. The more usual I.E. word for the animal is represented by ewe. As a type of timidity, from O.E.; the meaning "stupid, timid person" is attested from 1542. The image of the wolf in sheep's clothing was in O.E. (from Matt. vii.15); that of separating the sheep from the goats is from Matt. xxv.33. To count sheep in a bid to induce sleep is recorded from 1854. Sheep's eyes "loving looks" is attested from 1529 (cf. W.Fris. skiepseach, Du. schaapsoog, Ger. Schafsauge).
black sheep: figurative use (by 1843) is supposedly because a real black sheep had wool that could not be dyed and was thus worthless. But one black sheep in a flock was considered good luck by shepherds in Sussex, Somerset, Kent, Derbyshire. Baa Baa Black Sheep nursery rhyme's first known publication is in "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book" (c.1744).
baa: imitative sound of a sheep, attested from 1580s, but probably older as baa is recorded before this a name for a child's toy sheep.
ewe: O.E. eowu, fem. of eow "sheep," from P.Gmc. *awi, gen. *awjoz (cf. M.Du. ooge, O.H.G. ouwi, Goth. aweþi "flock of sheep"), from PIE *owi- (cf. Skt. avih, Gk. ois, Lith. avis "sheep," O.C.S. ovica "ewe").
fold (n.): "pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals," O.E. falæd, falud, a Gmc. word (cf. E.Fris. folt "enclosure, dunghill," Dan. fold "pen for sheep"), of uncertain origin.
ram: O.E. ramm "male sheep," also "battering ram," earlier rom "male sheep," a W.Gmc. word (cf. M.L.G., M.Du., Du., O.H.G. ram), of unknown origin. Perhaps connected with O.N. rammr "strong," O.C.S. ramenu "impetuous, violent." The verb meaning "to beat with a heavy implement" is first recorded early 14c. Rammy is attested from c.1600.
merino: "fine-wool breed of sheep," 1781, from Sp., possibly from Ar. Merini, a Berber family or tribe of sheep farmers in northwest Africa whose animals were imported into Spain 14c.-15c. to improve local breeds. Or from L. majorinus, from major "greater," either in ref. to size of the animals or from Sp. derivative merino (n.) "overseer of cattle pastures," also a title of judicial officers.
mutton: "flesh of sheep used as food," late 13c., from O.Fr. moton "ram, wether, sheep" (Fr. mouton), from M.L. multonem (8c.), probably from Gaulish *multo-s, acc. of *multo (cf. O.Ir. molt "wether," Mid-Breton mout, Welsh mollt). Transf. slang sense of "food for lust, loose women, prostitutes" (1510s) led to extensive British slang uses down to the present day for woman variously regarded as seeking lovers or as lust objects.
mouton enragé: 1932, from Fr., lit. "angry sheep." "A normally calm person who has become suddenly enraged or violent."
woolgathering: 1553, "indulging in wandering fancies and purposeless thinking," from the lit. meaning "gathering fragments of wool torn from sheep by bushes, etc."
Shetland: group of islands north of Scotland, from O.N. Hjaltland; in ref. to a type of pony, 1801; as a breed of sheep, 1794.
anthrax: late 14c., "any severe boil or carbuncle," from L., from Gk. anthrax, lit. "live coal," also "carbuncle," of unknown origin. Specific sense of the disease in sheep and cattle (and occasionally humans) is from 1876.
catgut: 1599, from kitgut from obsolete kit "fiddle." It was actually made from the intestines of sheep.
bellwether: mid-15c., from bell + wether; the lead sheep (on whose neck a bell was hung) of a domesticated flock; used earlier in the figurative sense of "chief, leader" (early 15c.).
ovine: 1828, from L. ovinus, from ovis "sheep."
earmark: 1520s, from ear (1) + mark (1). Originally a cut or mark in the ear of sheep and cattle, serving as a sign of ownership; first recorded 1570s in figurative sense. Related: Earmarked.
schnook: 1948, probably from Yiddish shnuk "elephant's trunk," or altered from schmuck (q.v.), or perhaps from Ger. schnucke "a small sheep," used in U.S. Yiddish for "a customer easily persuaded, a sucker."
eucalyptus: 1809, from Mod.L., coined 1788 by Fr. botanist Charles Louis L'héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800) from Gk. eu- "well" + kalyptos "covered," for the covering on the bud.
"A London thief ... lodged under the bark of the dwarf eucalyptus, and keeping sheep ... is not an uninteresting picture." [Sydney Smith, "Botany Bay," 1823]
llama: c.1600, from Sp. llama (1535), from Quechua (Peru) llama, which the Sp. translated as "sheep."
stile: O.E. stigel "device for climbing, ladder," related to stigen "to climb," from P.Gmc. *stig- "to climb," (see stair). An arrangement to allow persons to pass but not sheep and cattle.
ricin: poison obtained from the castor-oil bean, 1896, from ricinus, genus name of the castor-oil plant (1694), from L. ricinus (Pliny), perhaps the same word as ricinus "tick (in sheep, dogs, etc.).
suet: late 14c., "solid fat formed in the torsos of cattle and sheep," probably from an Anglo-Fr. diminutive of sius, the nominative use of sue, seu "tallow, grease," from O.Fr. sieu "tallow," from L. sebum "tallow, grease."
Judas: biblical betrayer of Christ, Latin form of Gk. Ioudas, from Heb. Yehudha (see Judah). As a name for a malicious traitor, it is attested from 1489. Judas priest as an exclamation in place of "Jesus Christ" is from 1914. Judas tree (1668) supposedly was the type from which Judas hanged himself. The Judas goat (1941) leads sheep to the shackling pen.
drunk: pp. of drink, used as an adj. from mid-14c. In various expressions, e.g. "drunk as a lord" (1891); Chaucer has "dronke ... as a Mous" (c.1386); and, my personal favorite, from 1709, is, "He's as Drunk as a Wheelbarrow." Medieval folklore distinguished four successive stages of drunkenness, based on the animals they made men resenble: sheep, lion, ape, sow. Drunk driver first recorded 1948. Drunk-tank "jail cell for drunkards" is 1947, Amer.Eng. The noun meaning "drunken person" is from 1852; earlier this would have been a drunkard.
fleece (n.): O.E. fleos, from W.Gmc. *flusaz (cf. M.Du. vluus, M.H.G. vlius, Ger. Vlies), probably from PIE *plus- (cf. L. pluma "feather, down," Lith. plunksna "feather"). The verb is 1530s in the literal sense of "to strip a sheep of fleece" and 1570s in the figurative meaning "to cheat, swindle." Related: Fleeced; fleecing.
collie: 1651, possibly from dial. coaly "coal-black," the color of some breeds (cf. colley "sheep with black face and legs," attested from 1793; M.E. colfox "coal-fox," a variety of fox with tail and both ears tipped with black; and colley Somerset dialectal name for "blackbird"). Or from Scand. proper name Colle, known to have been applied to dogs ("Ran Colle our dogge, and Talbot, and Gerlond" [Chaucer]); or from a convergence of the two.
slaughter: c.1300, "killing of a cattle or sheep for food, killing of a person," from O.N. *slahtr, akin to slatr "a butchering, butcher meat," slatra "to slaughter," and slattr "a mowing;" related to sla "to strike" (see slay), from P.Gmc. *slukhtis. Meaning "killing of a large number of persons in battle" is attested from mid-14c. The verb is from 1530s. Slaughter-house is from late 14c.
shepherd (n.): O.E. sceaphierde, from sceap "sheep" + hierde "herder," from heord "a herd" (see herd). Cf. M.L.G., M.Du. schaphirde, M.H.G. schafhirte, Ger. dial. schafhirt. Shepherds customarily were buried with a tuft of wool in hand, to prove their occupation on Doomsday and be excused for often missing Sunday church. The metaphoric verbal sense of "watch over or guide" is first recorded 1820. Shepherd's pie is recorded from 1877.
shabby: 1669, from shab "scab" (now only dial., in ref. to a disease of sheep), from O.E. sceabb (see scab), with sound change as described in sh-. Cf. M.Du. schabbich, Ger. schäbig "shabby." Shabby-genteel "run-down but trying to keep up appearances" first recorded 1754.
wether: O.E. weðer "ram," from P.Gmc. *wethruz (cf. O.S. wethar, O.N. veðr, O.H.G. widar, Ger. Widder, Goth. wiþrus "lamb"), lit. "yearling," from PIE base *wet- "year" (cf. Skt. vatsah "calf," Gk. etalon "yearling," L. vitulus "calf," lit. "yearling"). Male sheep, especially a castrated one.
rape (n.): "kind of plant" (Brassica napus), c.1390, from O.Fr. rape, from L. rapa, rapum "turnip," from PIE *rap- (cf. Gk. hrapys "rape," O.C.S. repa, Lith. rope, M.Du. roeve, O.H.G. ruoba, Ger. Rübe "rape, turnip"). Usually grown for sheep, an oil is made from it.
yean: O.E. eanian "to bring forth" (young), especially in ref. to sheep or goats, from P.Gmc. *agwnojanan (cf. Du. oonen), perhaps from PIE *agwhnos "lamb" (cf. Gk. amnos "lamb," L. agnus, O.C.S. agne, O.Ir. van, Welsh oen). Yeanling "young lamb, kid" is recorded from 1637.
ringer: especially be a dead ringer for "resemble closely," 1891, from ringer, a fast horse entered fraudulently in a race in place of a slow one (the verb to ring in this sense is attested from 1812), possibly from British ring in "substitute, exchange," via ring the changes, "substitute counterfeit money for good," a pun on ring the changes in the sense of play the regular series of variations in a peal of bells (1614). Meaning "expert" is first recorded 1918, Australian slang, from earlier meaning "man who shears the most sheep per day" (1871).
worry (v.): O.E. wyrgan "to strangle," from W.Gmc. *wurgijanan (cf. M.Du. worghen, Du. worgen, O.H.G. wurgen, Ger. würgen "to strangle," O.N. virgill "rope"), from PIE *wergh- "to turn" (see wring). The oldest sense was obs. in Eng. after c.1600; meaning "annoy, bother, vex," first recorded 1671, developed from that of "harass by rough or severe treatment" (1553), as of dogs or wolves attacking sheep. Meaning "to cause mental distress or trouble" is attested from 1822; intrans. sense of "to feel anxiety or mental trouble" is first recorded 1860.
twi-: prefix meaning "two," O.E. twi-, prefix meaning "two, in two ways, twice, double," from P.Gmc. *twi- (cf. O.Fris. twi-, O.N. tvi-, Du. twee-, O.H.G. zwi-, Ger. zwei-), from PIE *dwis (cf. Skt. dvi-, Gk. di-, Old L. dvi-, L. bi-, Lith. dvi-), from *dwo "two" (see two). Cognate with bi-. Older instances of it include M.E. twinter "two years old" (1404, of cattle, sheep, etc.), reduced from O.E. twi-wintre, and O.E. twispræc "double or deceitful speech."
unilateral: 1802, from Mod.L. unilateralis, from unum, neut. of unus "one" (see one) + latus (gen. lateralis) "side" (see oblate (n.)). Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) may have been the first to use it in the legal sense of "made or entered into by one party." Unilateral disarmament is recorded from 1929. Unilateralism is recorded from 1926, and seems to have been used in the sense of "advocate of unilateral disarmament." Meaning "pursuit of a foreign policy without allies" is attested from 1964.
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion." [William Ralph Inge, "Outspoken Essays," 1919]
score: late O.E. scoru "twenty," from O.N. skor "mark, tally," also, in Icelandic, "twenty," from P.Gmc. *skura-, from PIE base *(s)ker- "to cut" (cf. O.E. sceran; see shear). The connecting notion is perhaps counting large numbers (of sheep, etc.) with a notch in a stick for each 20. This counting notion is the origin of the modern sense in sports (1742, originally in whist). In O.Fr., "twenty" (vint) or a multiple of it could be used as a base, e.g. vint et doze ("32"), dous vinz et diz ("50"). Meaning "printed piece of music" first recorded 1701, from the practice of connecting related staves by scores of lines. The verb meaning "to cut with incisions or notches" is attested from c.1400; the slang sense "achieve intercourse" first recorded 1960.
pudding: c.1300, "a kind of sausage: the stomach or one of the entrails of a pig, sheep, etc., stuffed with minced meat, suet, seasoning, boiled and kept till needed," perhaps from a W.Gmc. stem *pud- "to swell" (cf. O.E. puduc "a wen," Westphalian dial. puddek "lump, pudding," Low Ger. pudde-wurst "black pudding," Eng. dial. pod "belly," also cf. pudgy). Other possibility is that it is from O.Fr. boudin "sausage," from V.L. *botellinus, from L. botellus "sausage" (change of Fr. b- to Eng. p- presents difficulties, but cf. purse). The modern sense had emerged by 1670, from extension to other foods boiled or steamed in a bag or sack. German pudding, Fr. pouding, Swed. pudding, Ir. putog are from English. Puddinghead "amiable stupid person" is attested from 1851.
superintendent: 1554, originally an ecclesiastical word meaning "bishop" or "minister who supervises churches within a district" (a loan-translation of Gk. episkopos "overseer"), from M.L. superintendentem (nom. superintendens), from prp. of L.L. superintendere "oversee," from L. super "above" (see super-) + intendere "turn one's attention, direct" (see intend). Famously used by 16c. radical Protestants in place of bishop, which was to them tainted by Papacy.
"[Martinists] studie to pull downe Bishopps, and set vp Superintendents, which is nothing else, but to raze out good Greeke, & enterline bad Latine." [Lyly, "Pappe with an Hatchet," 1589]
The general sense of "a person who has charge of some business" is first recorded 1588. Meaning "janitor, custodian" is from c.1935. Shortened form super first attested 1857, especially at first of overseers of sheep ranches in Australia.
hog: c.1175 (implied in hogaster), "swine reared for slaughter" (usually about a year old), also used by stockmen for "young sheep" (c.1350) and for "horse older than one year," suggesting the original sense had something to do with an age, not a type of animal. Not evidenced in O.E., but it may have existed. Possibility of Celtic origin is regarded by OED as "improbable." Fig. sense of "gluttonous person" is first recorded 1436. Meaning "Harley-Davidson motorcycle" is attested from 1967. The verb meaning "to appropriate greedily" is U.S. slang from 1884 (first attested in "Huck Finn"). The verb hog-tie "bind hands and feet" is first recorded 1894. Hog in armor "awkward or clumsy person in ill-fitting attire" is from 1660. Phrase to go the whole hog (1828) is sometimes said to be from the butcher shop option of buying the whole slaughtered animal (at a discount) rather than just the choice bits. But it is perhaps rather from the story (recorded in Eng. from 1779) of Muslim sophists, forbidden by the Quran from eating a certain unnamed part of the hog, who debated which part was intended and managed to exempt the whole of it from the prohibition.
small: O.E. smæl "slender, narrow, small," from P.Gmc. *smalaz (cf. O.S., Dan., Swed., M.Du., Du., O.H.G. smal, O.Fris. smel, Ger. schmal "narrow," Goth. smalista "smallest," O.N. smali "small cattle, sheep"), perhaps from a PIE base *(s)melo- "smaller animal" (cf. Gk. melon, O.Ir. mil "a small animal;" O.C.S. malu "bad"). Original sense of "narrow" now almost obsolete, except in reference to waistline and intestines.
"My sister ... is as white as a lilly, and as small as a wand." [Shakespeare, "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 1591]
Sense of "not large, of little size" developed in O.E. With many extended senses, e.g. small fry, first recorded 1690s of little fish, 1885 of insignificant people. Small potatoes first attested 1940; small change "something of little value" is from 1902; small talk "chit-chat" (1751) first recorded in Chesterfield's "Letters." Small world as a comment upon an unexpected meeting of acquaintances is recorded from 1895. Small-town (adj.) "unsophisticated, provincial" is recorded from 1824. Small arms, indicating those capable of being carried in the hand (contrasted to ordnance) is recorded from 1710.
-s (1): suffix forming almost all Mod.Eng. plural nouns, was gradually extended in M.E. from O.E. -as, the nom. plural and acc. plural ending of certain "strong" masc. nouns (cf. dæg "day," nom./acc. pl. dagas "days"). The commonest Gmc. declension, traceable back to the original PIE inflection system, it is also the source of the Du. -s plurals and (by rhotacism) Scand. -r plurals (e.g. Swed. dagar). Much more uniform today than originally; O.E. also had a numerous category of "weak" nouns that formed their plurals in -an, and other strong nouns that formed plurals with -u. Quirk and Wrenn, in their O.E. grammar, estimate that 45 percent of the nouns a student will encounter will be masc., nearly four-fifths of them with gen. sing. -es and nom./acc. pl. in -as. Less than half, but still the largest chunk. The triumphs of -'s possessives and -s plurals represent common patterns in language: using only a handful of suffixes to do many jobs (cf. -ing), and the most common variant squeezing out the competition. To further muddy the waters, it's been extended in slang since 1936 to singulars (e.g. ducks, sweets, babes) as an affectionate or dim. suffix. O.E. single-syllable collectives (sheep, folk) as well as weights, measures, and units of time did not use -s. The use of it in these cases began in M.E., but the older custom is preserved in many traditional dialects (ten pound of butter; more than seven year ago).
park (n.): c.1260, "enclosed preserve for beasts of the chase," from O.Fr. parc, probably ult. from W.Gmc. *parruk "enclosed tract of land" (cf. O.E. pearruc, root of paddock (2), O.H.G. pfarrih "fencing about, enclosure," Ger. pferch "fold for sheep," Du. park). Internal evidence suggests the W.Gmc. word is pre-4c. and originally meant the fencing, not the place enclosed. Found also in M.L. parricus "enclosure, park" (8c.), which is likely the direct source of the O.Fr. word, as well as It. parco, Sp. parque, etc. Some claim the M.L. word as the source of the W.Gmc., but the reverse seems more likely. OED discounts notion of a Celtic origin. Welsh parc, Gael. pairc are from English. As a surname, Parker "keeper of a park" is attested in Eng. from c.1145. Meaning "enclosed lot in or near a town, for public recreation" is first attested 1663, originally in ref. to London; the sense evolution is via royal parks in the original, hunting sense being overrun by the growth of London and being opened to the public. Applied to sporting fields in Amer.Eng. from 1867. New York's Park Avenue as an adj. meaning "luxurious and fashionable" (1956) was preceded in the same sense by London's Park Lane (1880).