shovel – English noun declension

English noun forms of shovel

Noun: shovel
Singularshovel
Pluralshovels

Sample Sentences

  • It was said that such train crews kept a spare shovel on board because, on numerous occasions, the beginner had not only zealously thrown coal into the firebox but had let the shovel go as well. [1943 July and August, T. Lovatt Williams, “Some Reminiscences of the Footplate—1”, in Railway Magazine, pages 233–234:]
  • No one seems to like the offer, and the umpire is just coming down, when a queer old hat, something like a doctor of divinity's shovel, is chucked on to the stage […] [1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:]

Etymology

1. From Middle English schovele, schovel, showell, shole (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English scofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō (“shovel”), equivalent to shove + -el (instrumental/agent suffix).
2. Cognate with Scots shuffle, shule, shuil (“shovel”), Saterland Frisian Sköifel (“shovel”), West Frisian skoffel, schoffel (“hoe, spade, shovel”), Dutch schoffel (“spade, hoe”), Low German Schüfel, Schuffel (“shovel”), German Schaufel (“shovel”), Danish skovl (“shovel”), Faroese skupla (“shovel”), Icelandic skófla (“shovel”), Norwegian skyfle (“shovel”), skyffel (“shovel, hoe”), Swedish skyffel, skovel (“shovel”).
3. Compare typologically Russian пешня (pešnja) (akin to пиха́ть (pixátʹ)), сово́к (sovók) (akin to сова́ть (sovátʹ)). See: Middle English Nouns 'schovele', Old English Nouns 'scofl', Dutch Nouns 'schoffel', German Nouns 'Schaufel', Faroese Nouns 'skupla', Icelandic Nouns 'skófla', Swedish Nouns 'skyffel'.

Verbs referencing "shovel"

Dutch Nouns shovel, English Nouns scoop, German Nouns Schaufel, Zulu Nouns ifosholo, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns skuffel, Swedish Nouns skovel.