scythe means an instrument for mowing grass, grain, etc. by hand, composed of a long, curving blade with a sharp concave edge, fastened to a long handle called a snath.
scythe is pronounced /ˈsaɪð/.
Why “scythe” is a great word
A long-handled agricultural implement with a curved, razored blade, designed for the sweeping, upright mowing of standing grass or grain. Its etymology cuts deep: from Middle English sythe, sithe, from Old English sīþe, sīgþe, sigdi (“sickle”), from Proto-West Germanic *sigiþi, from Proto-Germanic *sigiþiz, derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sek- (“to cut”). The now-silent ‘c’ was grafted onto the word in the 15th century by folk-etymological association with Latin scindō (“to cut”). Unlike a “sickle,” which demands the stooped, one-handed intimacy of gathering and snipping, or a “mower,” which abstracts the act into mechanical noise, the scythe is a tool of grand, full-bodied arcs. It is the hiss of the blade through dew-heavy wheat at dawn, the patient metronome of the mower’s turn, the clean geometry of the Reaper’s emblem—an instrument so perfectly scaled to human rhythm that the swing and return of the edge become a kind of breathing, ordering the world one swath at a time, knowing the grass will grow again.
Etymology
From Middle English sythe, sithe, from Old English sīþe, sīgþe, sigdi (“sickle”), from Proto-West Germanic *sigiþi, from Proto-Germanic *sigiþiz, *sigiþō, derived from *seg- (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).
Immediate Germanic cognates include Middle Low German sēgede, Dutch zicht, Icelandic sigð (all “sickle”). More distantly related with Dutch zeis, German Sense (both “scythe”). Also akin to English saw, which see.
The silent c crept in during the early 15th century owing to folk-etymological association with Medieval Latin scissor (“tailor, carver”), from Latin scindō (“to cut, rend, split”).
The verb, which was first used in the intransitive sense, is from the noun.
noun
- An instrument for mowing grass, grain, etc. by hand, composed of a long, curving blade with a sharp concave edge, fastened to a long handle called a snath.“And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.”
- A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.
- The tenth Lenormand card.
verb
- To use a scythe.
- To cut with a scythe.
- To cut off as with a scythe; to mow.
- To attack or injure as if cutting.“The boy began to keen, and the high-pitched noise scythed through Song's head.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- swath 84% match — The track cut out by a scythe in mowing. vs scythe →
- reaper 82% match — One who reaps; a person employed to harvest crops from the fields by reaping. vs scythe →
- snithe 81% match — To cut; to make an incision; to cut off; to lance or amputate; to cut up; to cut so as to kill; to slay an animal; to hew; to cut stone; to cut hair; to cut corn; to reap; to mow. vs scythe →
- hedgebill 81% match — A hedger's tool resembling a sickle. vs scythe →
- ploughshare 81% match — The cutting edge of a plough, typically a metal blade. vs scythe →
- poleaxe 81% match — An ax having both a blade and a hammer face; used to slaughter cattle. vs scythe →
- windrow 80% match — A row of cut grain or hay allowed to dry in a field. vs scythe →
- glaive 80% match — A light lance with a long, sharp-pointed head. vs scythe →