This week’s theme
Words that have many unrelated meanings

This week’s words
gob
skelf
shingle
plenum
rede

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SHING-guhl)

MEANING:

noun:	1. A tile laid in overlapping rows to cover walls or roofs.
	2. A small signboard indicating a professional office. Used in the phrase “to hang one’s shingle”.
	3. A woman’s close-cropped haircut tapering from the back of the head to the nape.
	4. Waterworn pebbles found on a beach.
	5. A place where such pebbles are found.
verb tr.:	1. To cover with shingles or to lay out something in an overlapping manner.
	2. To cut hair in a shingle.
	3. To squeeze or hammer puddled iron to remove impurities.

ETYMOLOGY:

For noun 1-3 & verb 1-2: From Latin scindula (a thin piece of wood). Earliest documented use: 1200.
For noun 4-5: Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1513.
For verb 3: From French cingler (to whip or beat), from German zängeln, from Zange (tongs). Earliest documented use: 1674.

USAGE:

“[Limited license legal technicians] apprentice under a lawyer for 3,000 hours before they hang their shingles.”
Robert Ambrogi; Who Says You Need a Law Degree to Practice Law?; The Washington Post; Mar 15, 2015.

“Some decisions are carefully constructed towers of logic framed in lists of pros and cons, shingled in trusted advice.”
G.P. Ching; The Grounded Trilogy Book One; Carpe Luna; 2014.

“Officers tracked the woman down using the car’s registration number and gave her advice that taking shingle from the beach was illegal.”
Woman Who ‘Stole’ Pebbles from a Beach; The Mirror (London, UK); Oct 2, 2013.

See more usage examples of shingle in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: