different between sheaf vs ligament

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

From Middle English ligament, from Latin lig?mentum, from lig? (“tie, bind”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l???m?nt/

Noun

ligament (plural ligaments)

1. (anatomy) A band of strong tissue that connects bones to other bones.
2. (figuratively) That which binds or acts as a ligament.
   • Paraphrase of Daniel Webster, from his oration on Justice Joseph Story

     Justice is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.

Derived terms

• ligamental
• ligamentary
• ligamentous

Translations

See also

• sinew
• tendon

Anagrams

• tegminal

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lig?mentum, from lig? (“tie, bind”). Cf. also liement, possibly an inherited doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.?a.m??/

Noun

ligament m (plural ligaments)

1. ligament

Related terms

• lier

Further reading

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

Middle English

Alternative forms

• lygament

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lig?mentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li??a?m?nt/, /?li?am?nt/

Noun

ligament (plural ligamentes)

1. A ligament or similar connecting tissue (e.g. a tendon)
2. (rare) That which binds.

Descendants

• English: ligament

References

• “lig??ment, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French ligament, itself a borrowing from Latin lig?mentum, from lig? (“tie, bind”). Compare leg?mânt, an inherited doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [li.?a?ment]

Noun

ligament n (plural ligamente)

1. ligament

Declension