Beautiful hasn’t always been ‘beautiful’. In Old English, one of the words for it was ‘sċēne’.
This word became ‘sheen’, but as an adjective, it’s all but dead.
The Germanic cognates of ‘sheen’ include Dutch ‘schoon’ (which also means “clean”), German ‘schön’, and Swedish ‘skön’. German ‘schon’ (“already”) is also related.
These words derive from a verb related to ‘show’. Their original meaning appears to have been “watchable”.
Click my new infographic to learn all about this word family.
This word became ‘sheen’, but as an adjective, it’s all but dead.
The Germanic cognates of ‘sheen’ include Dutch ‘schoon’ (which also means “clean”), German ‘schön’, and Swedish ‘skön’. German ‘schon’ (“already”) is also related.
These words derive from a verb related to ‘show’. Their original meaning appears to have been “watchable”.
Click my new infographic to learn all about this word family.
1
