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Origin and history of shaver

shaver(n.)

early 15c., "one who shaves or cuts hair," agent noun from shave (v.); sense of "fellow, chap" is slang from 1590s. Meaning "shaving tool" is from 1550s (as a kind of medical instrument, early 15c.). Mad shaver (1610s) was 17c. slang for "a swashbuckler, roisterer."

also from early 15c.

Entries linking to shaver

shave(v.)

Middle English shaven, from Old English sceafan (strong verb, past tense scof, past participle scafen), "to scrape, shave, or pare away; to polish," from Proto-Germanic *skaban (source also of Old Norse skafa, Middle Dutch scaven, German schaben, Gothic skaban "scratch, shave, scrape"), from PIE *skabh-, collateral form of root *(s)kep- "to cut, to scrape, to hack" (for which see scabies).

Related: Shaved; shaving. Original strong verb status is preserved in past tense form shaven. As "remove the hair or beard of with a razor" from mid-13c. Intransitive sense of "shave oneself, remove the beard with a razor" is by 1715. The sense of "remove by slicing or paring action of a keen-edged instrument" is from late 14c., as is the general sense of "cut down gradually by taking off thin pieces." Figurative sense of "to strip (someone) of money or possessions" is attested from late 14c.

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    Old English cild "fetus, infant, unborn or newly born person," from Proto-Germanic *kiltham (source also of Gothic kilþei "womb," inkilþo "pregnant;" Danish kuld "children of the same marriage;" Old Swedish kulder "litter;" Old English cildhama "womb," lit. "child-home"); it has
    kid
    c. 1200, "the young of a goat," from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse kið "young goat," from Proto-Germanic *kidjom (source also of Old High German kizzi, German kitze, Danish and Swedish kid), a word of uncertain origin. The extended meaning "child" is recorded as slang b
    minor
    early 13c., in frere menour "Franciscan friar," literally "minor friar," from Latin minor "less, lesser, smaller, junior," figuratively "inferior, less important," which was formed as a masculine/feminine form of minus on the mistaken assumption that minus was a neuter comparativ
    mug
    When the notorious "Shaver Good" and his accomplices were arrested, and the robbery of several houses and stores fastened...
    changeling
    1550s, "one given to change," from change (n.) + diminutive suffix -ling. The meaning "person or thing left in place of one secretly taken" is from 1560s; the specific reference to an infant or young child (usually stupid, strange, or ugly) superstitiously believed to have been l
    rapscallion
    "A rascally, disorderly, or despicable person" [Century Dictionary], 1690s, alteration of rascallion (1640s), a fanciful elaboration of rascal (q.v.). It had a parallel in now-extinct rampallion (1590s), from Middle English ramp (n.2) "ill-behaved woman." Also compare rascabilian
    piccaninny
    also pickaninny, "a baby," especially, as used by Europeans, one of any of the black races, 1650s, from West Indies patois, formed as a diminutive from Spanish pequeño or Portuguese pequeno "little, small," a word of uncertain origin, related to French petit (see petit (adj.)). N
    bairn
    "child" (of either gender or any age), "son or daughter," Old English bearn "child, son, descendant," from Proto-Germanic *barnan (source also of Old Saxon barn, Old Frisian bern, Old High German barn "child;" lost in modern German and Dutch), from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry,"
    brain
    "soft, grayish mass filling the cranial cavity of a vertebrate," in the broadest sense, "organ of consciousness and the mind," Old English brægen "brain," from Proto-Germanic *bragnan (source also of Middle Low German bregen, Old Frisian and Dutch brein), a word of uncertain orig
    rascal
    mid-14c., rascaile "people of the lowest class, the general mass; rabble or foot-soldiers of an army" (senses now obsolete), also singular, "low, tricky, dishonest person," from Old French rascaille "rabble, mob" (12c., Modern French racaille), as Cotgrave's French-English Dictio

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