Etymograph

English

sheet

Sheet comes from Middle English schete, partly from Old English sċīete ‘linen sheet’, from Proto-Germanic *skautijǭ, from PIE *(s)kewd-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kewd-1‘to throw, shoot’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skautijǭ1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċīete1‘a sheet of linen’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schete1‘linen cloth’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604sheet1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English sheet
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice: “If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kewd-Wiktionary, English sheet‘to throw, shoot’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skautijǭWiktionary, English sheetreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċīeteWiktionary, English sheet‘a sheet of linen’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scheteWiktionary, English sheet‘linen cloth’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604sheetWiktionary, English sheet. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice: “If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- ‘to throw, shoot, pursue, rush’

shut, 4 more

Today it means

noun A thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sheet”. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- / sheet

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