Etymology
1. O.E.
sceotan "to shoot" (class II strong verb; past tense
sceat, pp.
scoten), from P.Gmc.
*skeutanan (cf. O.S.
skiotan, O.N.
skjota, O.Fris.
skiata, Du.
schieten, Ger.
schießen), from PIE base
*skeud- "to shoot, to chase, to throw, to project" (cf. Skt.
skundate "hastens, makes haste," O.C.S.
iskydati "to throw out," Lith.
skudrus "quick, nimble"). Meanings "send forth swiftly" and "wound with missiles" were in O.E. In ref. to pool playing, the verb is attested from 1926. Meaning "to inject by means of a hypodermic needle" is attested from 1914. Meaning "photograph" (especially a movie) is from 1890. As an interjection, an arbitrary euphemistic alteration of
shit, it is recorded from 1934.
Shooting star first recorded 1593.
Shoot the breeze "chat" first recorded 1941.
Shoot to kill first attested 1867.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd-
4. Proto-Indo-European *-eti
5. Proto-Indo-European *(s)kéwdeti?
6. Proto-Germanic *skuttōnąbf.?
7. Proto-Germanic *skeutaną
8. Proto-West Germanic *skeutan
9. Old English sċēotan
10. Middle English schoten
11. English shoot
12. Inherited from Middle English scheten, schoten, from Old English scēotan, from Proto-West Germanic *skeutan, from Proto-Germanic *skeutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kéwd-e-ti, thematic present of *(s)kewd- (“to shoot, throw”).
13. Cognates
14. Cognate with West Frisian sjitte, Low German scheten, Dutch schieten, German schießen, Danish skyde, Norwegian Bokmål skyte, Norwegian Nynorsk skyta, Swedish skjuta; and also, through Indo-European, with Russian кида́ть (kidátʹ), Albanian hedh (“to throw, toss”), Persian چست (čost, “quick, active”), Lithuanian skudrùs. See: Proto-Germanic '
*skeutaną', Low Saxon 'scheten', Dutch '
schieten', German, old spelling '
schießen', Danish '
skyde', Norwegian '
skyte', Norwegian, nynorsk '
skyta', Swedish '
skjuta', Russian '
кида́ть', Albanian '
hedh'.
Verbs referencing "shoot"
Vietnamese
sút, German, old spelling
schießen, Spanish
chutar, Russian
кидать, Alemannic German
schieße, German, Pennsylvania
schiesse, Albanian
hedh, Luxembourgish
schéissen, Cebuano siyot, Norwegian, nynorsk
skyta, Proto-Slavic
kydati, Proto-Slavic
sovati, Valencian
xutar, Czech
čutat.