Shrew - Wiktionary

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:shrewWikipedia

Pronunciation

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• enPR: shro͞o, shrū, IPA(key): /ʃɹuː/, /ʃɹɪu̯/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː

Etymology 1

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From Middle English *schrewe, from Old English sċrēawa (“shrew”), from Proto-Germanic *skrawwaz (“thin; meagre; frail”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut; shorten; skimp”). Cognates include Old High German scrawaz (“dwarf”), Norwegian skrugg (“dwarf”).

Noun

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shrew (plural shrews)

1. Any of numerous small, mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae.
2. Certain other small mammals that resemble true shrews.
3. (derogatory) An ill-tempered, nagging woman: a scold.
   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:The clerk had, I'm afraid, a shrew of a wife—shrill, vehement, and fluent. 'Rogue,' 'old miser,' 'old sneak,' and a great many worse names, she called him.
   • 1959, Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz:His wife was a shrew with warts on her face and she spoke to him sharply when others were present, but Simcha did not complain.

Usage notes

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The best-known use of the meaning 'ill-tempered woman' is probably from The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare.

Alternative forms

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• shrow (obsolete)

Synonyms

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• (mouselike mammal): ranny (obsolete), soricid
• (nagging woman): See Thesaurus:shrew

Hyponyms

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• (mouselike mammal): common shrew

Derived terms

[edit] terms derived from shrew (noun)

• armored shrew (Scutisorex somereni)
• Bendire's shrew
• common shrew (Sorex araneus in family Soricidae)
• elephant shrew (order Macroscelidea)
• Elliot's short-tailed shrew
• erd shrew (Sorex araneus)
• Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus in family Soricidae)
• hardishrew (Sorex araneus in family Soricidae)
• hero shrew (Scutisorex somereni)
• Himalayan shrew
• house shrew
• Jesus shrew
• jumping shrew (order Macroscelidea)
• marsh shrew
• marsupial shrew
• McCarthy's shrew
• mole shrew
• musk shrew
• Nelson's small-eared shrew (Cryptotis nelsoni, family Soricidae)
• northern tree shrew
• ornate shrew
• otter shrew (subfamily Potamogalinae in family Tenrecidae in order Afrosoricida)
• Pearson's long-clawed shrew
• red-toothed shrew
• Sado shrew
• Saint Lawrence Island shrew
• shrewd
• shrew-faced squirrel
• shrewish
• shrew mole
• shrewmouse (Sorex araneus in family Soricidae)
• shrew opossum, shrew possum (order Paucituberculata)
• shrew-run
• Sierra shrew
• slender shrew
• Tate's shrew rat
• tree shrew, tree-shrew, treeshrew (families Tupaiidae and Ptilocercidae in order Scandentia)
• true shrew (Soricidae)
• tule shrew
• water shrew
• West Indies shrew (genus †Nesophontes in family Solenodontidae)

Translations

[edit] mouselike animal

Afrikaans: skeerbekmuis Arabic: زَبَابَة f (zabāba) Armenian: սրընչակ (hy) (srənčʻak) Assamese: চিকা (sika) Asturian: musgañu (ast), topu ratu (ast) Azerbaijani: yereşən Basque: satitsu Belarusian: земляры́йка f (zjemljarýjka) Breton: minoc'h (br) m Bulgarian: земеро́вка f (zemeróvka) Burmese: ကြွက်စုတ် (my) (krwakcut) Catalan: musaranya f Chinese: Mandarin: 鼩鼱 (zh) (qújīng), 尖鼠 (jiānshǔ) Coptic: ⲉⲙⲓⲙ (emim) Czech: rejsek m Danish: spidsmus c Dutch: spitsmuis (nl) f Esperanto: soriko Estonian: karihiir Faroese: trantmús f Finnish: päästäinen (fi) Franco-Provençal: musèt French: musaraigne (fr) f Galician: furaño m, musgaño m Georgian: ბიგა (biga) German: Spitzmaus (de) f Greek: νανομυγαλίδα (nanomygalída), μυγαλή (el) f (mygalí) Hungarian: cickány (hu) Icelandic: snjáldurmús f, snjáldra f Indonesian: celurut (id) Irish: dallóg fhraoigh f Italian: toporagno (it) m Japanese: 尖鼠 (ja) (トガリネズミ, togarinezumi) Javanese: curut Kazakh: жертесер (jerteser) Korean: 뒤쥐 (dwijwi), 첨서(尖鼠) (cheomseo) Latgalian: ciersleits Latin: sōrex m Latvian: cirslis (lv) m Lithuanian: kirstukas (lt) m Macedonian: ровка f (rovka) Maltese: ġurdiem ta’ geddumu twil m Navajo: chį́į́shnézí Nepali: छुचुन्द्रो (chucundro) Northern Sami: (please verify) beaiskonjunni, vánddis Norwegian: Bokmål: spissmus m or f Nynorsk: spissmus f, skjerd m Occitan: musaranha (oc) f Old English: screawa m Ottoman Turkish: سیوری صیچان (sivri sıçan) Persian: موش شبگرد (muše šabgard) Polish: ryjówka (pl) f Portuguese: musaranho (pt) m Romanian: chițcan (ro) m Romansch: misarogn m Russian: землеро́йка (ru) f (zemlerójka) Scottish Gaelic: dallag-an-fhraoich f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ровчица f, ровка f Roman: rovčica (sh) f, rovka (sh) f Slovak: piskor m Slovene: rovka (sl) f Spanish: musaraña (es) f Swedish: näbbmus (sv) c Tagalog: musaranya Thai: หนูผี (nǔu-pǐi) Turkish: kir faresi, sivri fare (tr) Tày: cà rìa Ukrainian: землери́йка f (zemlerýjka) Vietnamese: chuột chù (𤝞𪻋) Welsh: llyg f West Frisian: pipermûs f

woman

Afrikaans: feeks Chinese: Mandarin: 潑婦 / 泼妇 (zh) (pōfù) Czech: rachomejtle, saň (cs) f, megera (cs) f, xantipa f, semetrika (cs) f Danish: rappenskralde c Esperanto: megero Finnish: äkäpussi (fi) French: furie (fr) f, mégère (fr) f Galician: arpella f German: Megäre (de) f Hebrew: מִרְשַׁעַת (he) f (mirshá'at) Polish: zołza (pl) f, hetera (pl) f, sekutnica (pl) f Portuguese: megera (pt) f Romanian: megeră (ro) f, scorpie (ro) f Russian: меге́ра (ru) f (megéra), ве́дьма (ru) f (védʹma) Sicilian: majara f, magara (scn) f, mavara (scn) f Slovak: megera f Spanish: arpía (es) f, bruja (es) f Swedish: ragata (sv) c, argbigga (sv) c Turkish: cadı (tr), şirret (tr)

Etymology 2

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From Middle English schrewen (“to make evil; curse”), from Middle English schrewe, schrowe, screwe (“wicked; evil; an evil person”), from Old English *scrēawa (“wicked person”, literally “biter”). Perhaps ultimately from the same word as Etymology 1 above.

Verb

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shrew (third-person singular simple present shrews, present participle shrewing, simple past and past participle shrewed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To beshrew; to curse.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story via the 'title' parameter)”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:I shrew myself.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

Anagrams

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• Rhews, wersh