English
sharrow
Blend of share (verb) + arrow, coined by Oliver Gajda of the City and County of San Francisco Bicycle Program; see the 21 July 2004 quotation.
Proto-Indo-European *(s)koréh₂
Proto-Germanic *skarō ‘a division’
Proto-West Germanic *skaru
Old English sċearu ‘a cutting’
Middle English schare ‘a portion or share’
English share
Proto-Indo-European *h₂érkʷo- ‘bow, arrow’
Proto-Germanic *arhwō
Proto-West Germanic *arhu
Old English earh
Middle English arwe ‘an arrow’
English arrow
The story
Blend of share (verb) + arrow, coined by Oliver Gajda of the City and County of San Francisco Bicycle Program; see the 21 July 2004 quotation.
Today it means
noun A marking (often consisting of an image of a bicycle with two inverted V shapes either above or below it) on the surface of a paved road shared by both bicycles and other vehicles indicating a portion of the road that cyclists may use.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “sharrow”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / sharrow