different between sheaf vs gerbe

English

Etymology

From Middle English scheef, from Old English s??af, from Proto-Germanic *skauba- (“sheaf”). Akin to West Frisian skeaf (“sheaf”), Dutch schoof (“sheaf”), German Schaub, Old Norse skauf (“a fox's tail”). Compare further Gothic ???????????????????? (skuft, “hair of the head”), German Schopf (“tuft”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sh?f, IPA^(key): /?i?f/
• Rhymes: -i?f

Noun

sheaf (plural sheaves or sheafs)

1. A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.

   Synonym: reap

   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act V, Scene III, line 70:

     O, let me teach you how to knit again / This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf, / These broken limbs again into one body.

   • c. 1697, John Dryden, “Georgic I”, in The Works of Virgil:

     E’en while the reaper fills his greedy hands, / And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands

2. Any collection of things bound together.

   Synonym: bundle
3. A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.
4. A quantity of arrows, usually twenty-four.
   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 34:

     Arrows were anciently made of reeds, afterwards of cornel wood, and occasionally of every species of wood: but according to Roger Ascham, ash was best; arrows were reckoned by sheaves, a sheaf consisted of twenty-four arrows.

5. (mechanical) A sheave.
6. (mathematics) An abstract construct in topology that associates data to the open sets of a topological space, together with well-defined restrictions from larger to smaller open sets, subject to the condition that compatible data on overlapping open sets corresponds, via the restrictions, to a unique datum on the union of the open sets.

Derived terms

• indsheaf

Translations

Verb

sheaf (third-person singular simple present sheafs, present participle sheafing, simple past and past participle sheafed)

1. (transitive) To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves

2. (intransitive) To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act III, Scene II, line 107:

     They that reap must sheaf and bind; Then to cart with Rosalind.

Anagrams

• SHAEF, Shefa

English

Etymology

Late 16th century, from French gerbe, from Frankish garba or garbe. Doublet of garb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d???b/

Noun

gerbe (plural gerbes)

1. (now obsolete) A (wheat) sheaf.
2. Something resembling a (wheat) sheaf in appearance. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (mathematics) An abstract construction in homological algebra and geometry providing a certain type of generalisation for a sheaf.
4. (pyrotechnics) A kind of ornamental firework.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Farrow to this entry?)

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Anagrams

• Gebre, Grebe, grebe

French

Etymology

From Middle French gerbe, garbe, from Old French garbe, jarbe, from Frankish *garba, from Proto-Germanic *garb?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???b/

Noun

gerbe f (plural gerbes)

1. (agriculture) sheaf (of wheat)
2. spray, bouquet (of flowers)
3. collection, anthology (of pieces of literature)
4. (heraldry) garb
5. (historical) tithe on crops under the Ancien Régime
6. (slang) puke, throw up (vomit)

Descendants

• ? English: gerbe

Verb

gerbe

1. first-person singular present indicative of gerber
2. third-person singular present indicative of gerber
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of gerber
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of gerber
5. second-person singular imperative of gerber

Further reading

• “gerbe” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• berge

German

Verb

gerbe

1. inflection of gerben:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative