Word: shell Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- Proto-Indo-European *skolH-yeh₂ Proto-Germanic *skaljō Proto-West Germanic *skallju Old English sċiell Middle English schelle English shell From Middle English schelle, from Old English sċel, sċell, sċiell, sċil, sċill, sċyl, sċyll, from Proto-West Germanic *skallju, from Proto-Germanic *skaljō (“shell; husk; rind; peel”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to cut; to separate, split”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch schil (“bark, rind, skin; crust; shell; slice”), Danish skæl (“scale; dandruff”), Faroese and Icelandic skel (“shell”), Norwegian Bokmål skjell (“shell; scale”), Norwegian Nynorsk skjel (“shell; bivalve; scale; carapace”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰 (skalja, “brick, tile”), French écaille (“scale; shell”), Friulian scae (“scale”), Italian scaglia (“scale; flake, sliver; splinter”); also Breton killi (“grove”), Cornish kelli (“grove”), Irish coill (“forest, wood”), Manx keyll (“forest, wood; grove, plantation”), Scottish Gaelic coille (“forest”), Welsh celli (“grove”), Latin scalpō (“to scratch; to carve”), Ancient Greek σκᾰ́λλω (skắllō, “to hoe, stir up”), Albanian çel (“to open up; to sprout; to hatch up; to rise”), Lithuanian skelti (“to crack, split”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian скала́ (skalá, “cliff, rock”), Czech skála (“rock”), Polish skała, skáła, szkała (“rock”), Slovak and Slovene skala (“rock”), Ukrainian скала́ (skalá), ска́ля (skálja, “cliff, rock”), Armenian քաղել (kʻaġel, “to pick; to gather; to mow”), Sanskrit कॢप् (kḷp, “to order; to manage; to perform; to create; to cut”). More at shale. Doublet of sheal. * (computing): From being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the operating-system internals. Pronunciation: /ʃɛl/, /ʃel/, /ʃæl/ 1. A hard external covering of an animal. Example: In some mollusks, as the cuttlefish, the shell is concealed by the animal's outer mantle and is considered internal. Example: Genuine mother-of-pearl buttons are made from sea shells. 2. A hard external covering of an animal. Labels: broadly 3. A hard external covering of an animal. 4. A hard external covering of an animal. 5. A hard external covering of an animal. 6. The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg. 7. One of the outer layers of skin of an onion. Example: The restaurant served caramelized onion shells. 8. The hard external covering of various plant seed forms. Example: The black walnut and the hickory nut, both of the same Genus as the pecan, have much thicker and harder shells than the pecan. 9. The hard external covering of various plant seed forms. 10. The hard external covering of various plant seed forms. Labels: in-plural 11. The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode. 12. The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile. 13. A hollow, usually spherical or cylindrical projectile fired from a siege mortar or a smoothbore cannon. It contains an explosive substance designed to be ignited by a fuse or by percussion at the target site so that it will burst and scatter at high velocity its contents and fragments. Formerly called a bomb. 14. The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round. 15. Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house. 16. A garment, usually worn by women, such as a shirt, blouse, or top, with short sleeves or no sleeves, that often fastens in the rear. 17. A coarse or flimsy coffin; a thin interior coffin enclosed within a more substantial one. Example: Upstairs in that chill darkened room which nobody passes who can help it , the old Baronet lies in his coffin shell - an awful form faintly defined beneath the sheet 18. An unmarked vehicle for carrying corpses from a crime scene. Example: Then they lifted the body into the bag, setting it down like something breakable, zipped the bag, wrapped the whole thing in polythene and carried the stretcher into the shell. 19. A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell. Example: The first lyre may have been made by drawing strings over the underside of a tortoise shell. Example: when Jubal struck the chorded shell 20. The body of a drum; the often wooden, often cylindrical acoustic chamber, with or without rims added for tuning and for attaching the drum head. 21. An engraved copper roller used in print works. 22. The thin coating of copper on an electrotype. 23. The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating. 24. The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve. 25. A light boat whose frame is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat. 26. A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number. 27. The outward form independent of what is inside. Labels: figuratively 28. The empty outward form of someone or something. Labels: figuratively Example: The setback left him a mere shell; he was never the same again. Example: Mr. Thomas adds that, by the time it was scrapped, Kingsley was in very bad condition, little more than a shell in fact. In view of the rough usage to which the engine had been subjected, this is not surprising. 29. An emaciated person. Example: He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self. 30. A person otherwise diminished. Labels: figuratively Example: Since coming back from Vietnam, he's been a shell of his former self. 31. A psychological barrier to social interaction. Example: Even after months of therapy he's still in his shell. 32. An operating system software user interface, whose primary purpose is to launch other programs and control their interactions; the user's command interpreter. Shell is a way to separate the internal complexity of the implementation of the command from the user. The internals can change while the user experience/interface remains the same. Example: The name "Bash" is an acronym which stands for "Bourne-again shell", itself a pun on the name of the "Bourne shell", an earlier Unix shell designed by Stephen Bourne, and the Christian concept of being "born again". 33. A legal entity that has no operations. Example: A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory. 34. A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is ground to shape. 35. A gouge bit or shell bit. 36. The onset and coda of a syllable. 37. A person's ear. Labels: UK, slang Example: Can I have a quick word in your shell? 38. One or more school grades within secondary education, at certain public schools. Labels: UK Example: Chinese (Mandarin) is taught at Westminster from the Lower Shell as an optional subject. 39. In formal debating, a set of proposed rules to be followed, with set penalties for violating them. Example: a theory shell Example: a topicality shell