# sheep
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) enPR: shēp, IPA: /ʃiːp/
* Audio (Received Pronunciation):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ʃip/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Rhymes: -iːp

### Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English schep, schepe, from Anglian Old English sċēp (West Saxon sċēap), from Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą , of unknown origin.
Perhaps from the same Scythian word (compare Ossetian цӕу (cæw, “goat”), Persian چپش (čapiš, “yearling goat”)) which was borrowed into Albanian as cjap, sqap (“buck”) and into Slavic (compare Polish cap). After Kroonen, *skēpą is instead from the root of Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to scratch”) via Kluge's law.
See also West Frisian skiep, North Frisian schäip, Dutch schaap, German Schaf), beside Proto-Germanic *keppô (compare Old Norse kjappi (“buck”), dialectal German Kippe (“newborn calf”)).

#### Alternative forms

* shoop (slang, chiefly humorous)
* sheepe (obsolete)

#### Noun

sheep (countable and uncountable, plural sheep or (nonstandard, humorous or childish) sheeps)
* (countable) A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.
* (countable, strictly) A member of the domestic species Ovis aries, the most well-known species of Ovis.
* (countable) A timid, shy person who is easily led by others.
    Synonyms: lamb, ovine; see also Thesaurus:shy person
* (countable, chiefly Christianity, chiefly plural) A religious adherent, a member of a congregation or religious community (compare flock).
** 1990, Dave Mustaine, "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", Megadeth, Rust in Peace.
    And fools like me, who cross the sea and come to foreign lands / Ask the sheep, for their beliefs do you kill on God's command?
* (uncountable) Sheepskin leather.
* (countable, speech recognition) A person who is easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with goat.

##### Synonyms

* See also Thesaurus:sheep

##### Derived terms

* antisheep
* Barbary sheep
* bighorn sheep
* bitesheep
* Bizet sheep
* black sheep
* blue sheep
* count sheep
* Dall sheep
* Dall's sheep
* domestic sheep
* don't teach your grandmother to steal sheep
* fat-tailed sheep
* geep
* giraffe sheep
* iSheep
* lost sheep
* Marco Polo sheep
* mountain sheep
* Nairobi sheep disease
* nonsheep
* one may as well hang for a sheep as a lamb
* run sheep run
* scabby sheep
* separate the sheep from the goats
* sheepback
* sheep-bell
* sheepberry
* sheep-biter
* sheep-biting
* sheepcote
* sheep-dip
* sheep dog
* sheepdog
* sheepdom
* sheep-faced
* sheep farmer
* sheepflesh
* sheepfold
* sheepfucker
* sheep-headed
* sheepherder
* sheepherding
* sheephook
* sheep in wolf's clothing
* sheepish
* sheep ked
* sheep laurel
* sheeple
* sheepless
* sheeplet
* sheeplike
* sheep-like
* sheepling
* sheep liver fluke
* sheep louse
* sheepman
* sheepmaster
* sheepmeat
* sheep milk
* sheepness
* sheepo
* sheep polypore
* sheeppox
* sheep-run
* sheepsfoot
* sheep-shagger
* sheep shagger
* sheepshagger
* sheepshank
* sheepshead
* sheepshearer
* sheepshearing
* sheepshit
* sheep-silver
* sheep-skin
* sheepskin
* sheep sorrel
* sheep-split
* sheep station
* sheepstealer
* sheepstealing
* sheep tick
* sheeptrack
* sheepwalk
* sheepwash
* sheepway
* sheepy
* shepherd
* Shepway
* Shipley
* shoat
* shoop (slang, chiefly humorous)
* snow sheep
* Spanish sheep
* Stone sheep
* thinhorn sheep
* vegetable sheep
* watersheep
* white sheep
* wolf guarding the sheep
* wolf in sheep's clothing
* Xalda sheep

##### Descendants

* Tok Pisin: sipsip (reduplication)
** → Rotokas: sipisipi
* → Abenaki: azib (from "a sheep")
* → Chuukese: siip
* → Coeur d'Alene: sip
* → Quiripi: sheeps

##### Translations
#### See also

* Appendix:Animals
* Aries
* ewe
* hogg
* lamb
* mutton
* ovine
* ram
* teg
* tup
* wether

#### Further reading

* sheep on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Ovis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Sheep (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Ovis on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

sheep
* (chiefly humorous) plural of shoop

### References

* ↑ Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, s.vv. "*keppōn", "*skēpan" (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 213, 340
* ↑ Guus Kroonen (2011), The Proto-Germanic n-stems: a study in diachronic morphophonology , Rodopi, →ISBN.

### Anagrams

* Ephes., HEPES, heeps, shepe

## Middle English
### Noun

sheep
* Alternative form of schep

## Scots
### Etymology

Inherited from Middle English schep, from Old English scēap.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ʃip]

### Noun

sheep (plural sheep)
* sheep (woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis)

#### Alternative forms

* schap, scheep, schepe, scheip, schip

## Yola
### Noun

sheep
* Alternative form of zheep
** 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 9, page 88:Wourlok'd an anooree, lick lhuskès o' sheep.Tumbled on one-another, like flocks of sheep.

### References

* Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 88