scythe

Etymology

From Middle English sythe, sithe, from Old English sīþe, sīgþe, sigdi (“sickle”), from Proto-West Germanic *sigiþi, from Proto-Germanic *sigiþiz, *sigiþō, derived from *seg- (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Immediate Germanic cognates include Middle Low German sēgede, Dutch zicht, Icelandic sigð (all “sickle”). More distantly related with Dutch zeis, German Sense (both “scythe”). Also akin to English saw, which see. The silent c crept in during the early 15th century owing to pseudoetymological association with Medieval Latin scissor (“tailor, carver”), from Latin scindere (“to cut, rend, split”). The verb, which was first used in the intransitive sense, is from the noun.

noun

1. An instrument for mowing grass, grain, etc. by hand, composed of a long, curving blade with a sharp concave edge, fastened to a long handle called a snath.
   Early next morning the gudewife took a scythe on her shoulder, and went out in the fields with the hay-mowers to mow. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 41
2. (historical) A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.
3. (cartomancy) The tenth Lenormand card.

verb

1. (intransitive) To use a scythe.
2. (transitive) To cut with a scythe.
3. (transitive) To cut off as with a scythe; to mow.
4. (intransitive, figurative, often with through) To attack or injure as if cutting.
   The boy began to keen, and the high-pitched noise scythed through Song's head. 2011, Catherine Sampson, The Pool of Unease
   The smaller shells make a complete slaughterhouse of the bridge, and the splinters scythe through anyone out on deck. 27 February 2019, Drachinifel, 20:09 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03