Middle English shitten, sheten, "close (a door, window, gate, etc.); lock, fasten closed," from Old English scyttan "to put (a bolt) in place so as to fasten a door or gate, bolt, shut to; discharge, pay off," from West Germanic *skutjan (source also of Old Frisian schetta, Middle Dutch schutten "to shut, shut up, obstruct"), from PIE root *skeud- "to shoot, chase, throw." Related: Shutting.
The meaning "to close by folding or bringing together" is from mid-14c. That of "prevent ingress and egress" is from mid-14c. The sense of "to set (someone) free (from)," by c. 1500, is obsolete except in dialectal phrases such as get (or be) shut of (attested by 1570s). To shut (one's) mouth "desist from speaking" is recorded from mid-14c.
As a past-participle adjective, "made fast, closed, enclosed," by late 15c. As a noun, "action, time, or place of shutting," by 1660s.
"closed end of a passage," 1851 in reference to drainpipes, 1874 in reference to railway lines; by 1886 of streets; from dead (adj.) + end (n.). Figurative use, "course of action that leads nowhere," is by 1914. As an adjective in the figurative sense by 1917; as a verb by 1921. Related: Dead-ended; dead-ending; deadender (by 1996).
French, literally "high," fem. of haut (see haught). Haute bourgeoisie "the (French) upper-middle class" is in English from 1804.
early 14c., "tool for grasping or nipping, having two hinged jaws which can be firmly closed and held together," from Old French pinceure "pincers, tongs," from pincier "to pinch" (see pinch (v.)). Applied to insect or crustacean parts from 1650s. Related: Pincer. The military pincer movement is attested by 1929.
late 15c., "servant, serving-man, slave," from Old French serf "vassal, servant, slave" (12c.), from Latin servum (nominative servus) "slave" (see serve (v.)). The word had fallen from use in this sense by 18c. The meaning "lowest class of cultivators of the soil in Poland, Russia, and other continental European countries, living in conditions of modified slavery" is by 1610s.
It was use from 1761 by modern writers in reference to medieval Europeans attached to the land and incapable of owning property. Contemporary Anglo-Latin records used nativus, villanus, or servus. Middle English sometimes included this class under bond-man, or theu (from Old English þeow), also carl or churl.
late 14c., in logic, "a class of individuals or things," from Latin species "a particular sort, kind, or type" (opposed to genus), originally "a sight, look, view; outward appearance, shape, form," a derivative of specere "to look at, to see, behold" (from PIE root *spek- "to observe"). In English it is attested from 1550s as "appearance, outward form."
Latin species "a sight; outward appearance" had many extended senses, including "a spectacle; a mental appearance, an idea or notion;" also "semblance, pretext; manner, fashion; display, beauty; a likeness or statue; reputation, honor." Typically it was used in passive senses. Also compare spice (n.).
In Late Latin, in logic and legal language, it acquired the meaning "a special case," especially (as a translation of Greek eidos) "a class included under a higher class; a kind; a sort; a number of individuals having common characteristics peculiar to them." The notion (as Lewis & Short puts it) is "The particular thing among many to which the looks are turned."
The English word is attested from 1560s as "a distinct class (of something) based on common characteristics." The specific use in biological sciences in reference to groups of living things recognizably distinct from all others by their inherited characteristics is from c. 1600. Endangered species is attested by 1964.
