scheef

Dutch

Compare Latin scaevus (“left, clumsy”), Ancient Greek σκαιός (skaiós, “rude; brusque”), Latvian šķìbs (“crooked”).^[1] Cognate with German schief, Old English *sc(e)āf (in scāffōt (“splay-footed”)), Swedish skev.

scheef (comparative schever, superlative scheefst)

^ Philippa, Marlies, Debrabandere, Frans, Quak, Arend, Schoonheim, Tanneke, van der Sijs, Nicoline (2003–2009) “scheef1”, in Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands‎^[1] (in Dutch), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press

From Middle Dutch scēve, from Proto-Germanic *skibō-; cognate with Low German Schääv, German Schäbe, and English shive, all ‘fragment of the woody core of flax or hemp’.^[1]

scheef f (plural scheven, diminutive scheefje n)

^ Philippa, Marlies, Debrabandere, Frans, Quak, Arend, Schoonheim, Tanneke, van der Sijs, Nicoline (2003–2009) “schijf”, in Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands‎^[2] (in Dutch), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press

scheef (plural scheves or schefes)

“shēf, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-04.

From Middle Low German schêf, from Old Saxon *skêf, from Proto-West Germanic *skaib, from Proto-Germanic *skaibaz (“crooked”), of disputed ultimate origin. Perhaps from the same source as *skeuhaz (“frightened, shy”).^[1] Another possibility is Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂iwos, the source of Latin scaevus (“on the left side”).^[2] See also Swedish skev, Dutch scheef, German schief.

scheef

^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “skew”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “scheef”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute