share

Etymology 1

From Middle English schare, schere, from Old English sċearu (“a cutting, shaving, a shearing, tonsure, part, division, share”), from Proto-Germanic *skarō (“a division, detachment”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut, divide”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian skar, sker (“a share in a communal pasture”), Dutch schare (“share in property”), German Schar (“band, troop, party, company”), Icelandic skor (“department”). Compare shard, shear. Doublet of eschel.

noun

1. A portion of something, especially a portion given or allotted to someone.
   Each of the robbers took a share of the loot.
   The TV programme was cancelled because it only gained a 10% share of that night's viewing audience.
   SWR has more than its fair share of major national events. As well as the [Queen's] funeral and the coronation in the past 12 months, annual events include racing at Ascot, grand slam tennis at Wimbledon, and rugby internationals at Twickenham. July 26 2023, Paul Clifton, “A (safe and secure) Day at the Races...”, in RAIL, number 988, page 35
2. (finance) A financial instrument that shows that one owns a part of a company that provides the benefit of limited liability.
3. (computing) A configuration enabling a resource to be shared over a network.
   Upload media from the browser or directly to the file share.
4. (social media) The action of sharing something with other people via social media.
   Social media is supervisual, and there's nothing more shareable than images, so this is a way to increase shares and likes and follows. 2016, Brooke Warner, Green-Light Your Book
5. (anatomy) The sharebone or pubis.
   […] [H]ee stabbed him beneth in the very share neere unto his privie parts. [Dom.17] 1606, Suetonius, translated by Philemon Holland, De Vita Cæsarum

verb

1. To give part of what one has to somebody else to use or consume.
2. To have or use in common.
   to share a shelter with another
   They share a language.
   The Kleine Scheidegg is quite a colony, with its railway station, shared by the Wengernalp and Jungfrau Railways, its commodious station buffet and two large hotels. 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752
3. To divide and distribute.
4. To tell to another.
   He shared his story with the press.
   The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […] offering services that let you[…]“share the things you love with the world” and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. 2013-05-10, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27
5. (computing, Internet) To allow public or private sharing of computer data or space in a network

Etymology 2

From Middle English share, schare, shaar, from Old English sċear, sċær (“ploughshare”), from Proto-Germanic *skaraz (“ploughshare”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Cognate with Dutch schaar (“ploughshare”), dialectal German Schar (“ploughshare”), Danish (plov)skær (“ploughshare”). More at shear.

noun

1. (agriculture) The cutting blade of an agricultural machine like a plough, a cultivator or a seeding-machine.
   The golden harvest, of a mellow brown, Upturn'd so lately by the fearful share. 1785, William Cowper, The Task, Book IV

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To cut; to shear; to cleave; to divide.
   The shar'd visage hangs on equal sides.