Etymology: representing Old English gesceap neuter, creation, creature; make, structure, natural character; form, figure, configuration; pudendum (in this sense also sceap neuter); also decree, destiny; < Germanic root *skap- : see shape v. Compare Old Saxon giskap, only plural giskapu creatures, also ordinances, decrees (of God), Old Norse skap neuter, state, condition; plural, fate, destiny, also, with suffixed article skǫp-in the genitals. The Old English word is normally represented by the dialect form shap ; the form shape (with lengthened vowel due to the influence of shape v.) did not become common till the 15th cent., though occasional examples, perhaps due to inflection, are found early in the 13th cent.

Etymology: Acronym < the initials of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe, set up in 1951.

Etymology: A Common Germanic strong verb, the original conjugation of which is found unaltered only in Old English, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, and Gothic, while in the other Germanic languages, and in Middle and Modern English, the primitive flexional forms have been more or less completely replaced by analogical new formations. Old English scieppan , scóp , scapen corresponds to Old Frisian *skeppa , skôp , eskepen (West Frisian skeppe , skoep , skepen ), Old Saxon *gisceppian , -scôp (scuop ), *-scapan , Gothic gaskapjan , -skōp , -skapan : the sense in all these languages is ‘to create’, occasionally ‘to fashion’. In early Middle English a new present-stem shape was formed on the analogy of the past participle, and after the 14th cent. completely took the place of the older sheppe , shippe . The strong past tense survived into the 14th cent. (in Scots still later), but in Middle English two different weak formations are also found: shupte /y/ from the original present stem, and shapide from the altered form shape . In the past participle Middle English similarly developed two distinct weak forms, of the types schept and shaped . From the 16th cent. onwards, shape has been a ‘regular’ weak verb (past tense and participle shaped ), though the past participle shapen still survives in archaizing use. The verb has been influenced in sense-development by shape n.¹, of which it is apprehended as a derivative.In continental Germanic the changes in conjugation were similar to those that took place in Middle English; in addition, a cognate verb representing a Germanic type *skapōjan became in some dialects coincident in form with the verb represented by the Old English and Gothic forms above. Further, German and Dutch have from their earliest known periods had a verb meaning ‘to draw water’, identical in form (and perhaps in etymology) with the verb meaning ‘to create’; in the older stages of those languages all the conjugational varieties occur with both meanings, but subsequently the verb meaning ‘to create’ and that meaning ‘to draw water’ came to be distinguished throughout by difference of inflection. The forms are as follows < Old Frisian *skeppa , skôp , eskepen to create, Old Saxon giscôp , past tense, created, skeppian weak, to draw water; Dutch scheppen , schiep , geschapen to create, scheppen , schepte , geschept to draw water; Old High German scephen , scuof , giscaffan , also scaffan , scafta , gaskeft to create, to draw water, also scaffôn weak, to form; Middle High German schepfen , schepfte , geschepft , also schaffen , schuof , geschaffen , and occasionally schaffen , schaffte , geschafft to create, to do, to draw water; modern German schöpfen , schöpfte , geschöpft to draw water, earlier also to create (compare schöpfer creator); schaffen , schuf , geschaffen to create; schaffen , schaffte , geschafft to do, procure; Old Norse skepja , skóp and skapða , skapt-r , also skapa , skapaða , skapað-r to shape, make, ordain; Swedish skapa , Danish skabe to create, make, shape. The ultimate etymology is obscure. Some scholars have suggested that the original sense is ‘to draw (water) from a source’, and that the senses ‘to create’, ‘to ordain’ are developed from this. Others regard *skapjan to draw water (which is related to Germanic *skapo- , Old Saxon scap , Old High German scaf , modern German schaff , vessel, bucket) as a distinct word from*skapjan to create, ordain. For other derivatives of the Germanic root *skap- see shaft n.¹, -ship suffix; outside Germanic no cognates are known, unless the root *skap- be an altered form of *skaƀ- ( < pre-Germanic *skabh- ): see shave v.