shroud
/ʃraʊd/
noun
Origin
Old English
scrūd — garment, clothing, piece of clothing
Overview
Meaning Now
- A length of cloth or an enveloping garment in which a dead person is wrapped for burial.
- Something that covers or conceals something else, especially in a figurative sense.
- One of the ropes forming part of the standing rigging of a ship, supporting the mast.
Literal older meaning
a garment or piece of clothing
Language path
Proto-Germanic → Old English → English
Earliest form
scrūd
Earliest period
Old English period
Journey
The word originally referred generally to any type of clothing or garment. By the Middle English period, it specifically began to denote a burial cloth. The nautical sense referring to the ropes supporting a mast appeared in Middle English, likely reflecting the idea of 'clothing' or 'covering' the mast area.
Evolution
- Proto-Germanic
*skrutą
“garment or covering”
- Old English
scrūd
“garment, clothing, dress”
- Middle English
shroude
“a burial garment or covering”
Semantic narrowing towards death-related clothing
- Early Modern English
shroud
“burial cloth, covering, or ship rigging”
Connections
Word parts
shroud
root
garment
Related across languages
Old Norse
skrúð
ornament, clothing, rigging
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External references use DefinedTerm semantics.