Etymograph

English

shoal

Shoal comes from Middle English schold ‘Shallow’, and goes back to Old English sċeald.

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċeald1‘shallow’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schold1‘Shallow’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1613shoal1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English shoal
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1613, William Shakespeare, The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight: “Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, /…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċealdWiktionary, English shoal‘shallow’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scholdWiktionary, English shoal‘Shallow’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1613shoalWiktionary, English shoal. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1613, William Shakespeare, The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight: “Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, /…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- ‘to dry out’

skeleton, shallow, sclerosis, sclera, 5 more

Another origin of shoal

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kelH-‘to divide, split, separate’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skolureconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċeolu‘troop or band of people, host, multitude, division of army, school of fish’
  4. Englishtodayshoal

Today it means

adj Shallow.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “shoal”. 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 / Old English sċeald / shoal

Shirt and support for this word