shelf

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• /ʃɛlf/
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• Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• rhymes with -ɛlf
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• CMU ARPABET: SH EH1 L F Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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From Middle English schelfe, probably from Old English sċylfe, sċilfe (“shelf, ledge, deck of a ship”), from Proto-West Germanic *skilfijā, from Proto-Germanic *skelfō (“shelf, ledge, cliff”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to cut”), distantly related to sculpt, carve and shell. Cognate with Dutch schelf (“hay loft, haystack”), German Low German Schelf (“haystack”), Old Norse skjalf (“bench”).

Of obscure origin; evidently identical to Middle English shelp (“sandbar in a river”), but the sound shift is unexpected. Shelp might be from Old English scylp (“crag”) or Middle Dutch schelp-.

200 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Albanian: raft — structure
• Arabic: رَفّ (raff) — structure
• Arabic: رف (raff) — structure
• Arabic: رَفّ (raff) — structure
• Armenian: դարակ (darak) — structure
• Azerbaijani: rəf — structure
• Bashkir: кәштә (kəştə) — structure
• Basque: apal — structure
• Belarusian: палі́ца (palíca) — structure
• Bengali: তাক (tak) — structure
• Bhojpuri: ताखा (tākhā) — structure
• Breton: estajerenn — structure
• Bulgarian: по́лица (pólica) — structure
• Bulgarian: етаже́рка (etažérka) — structure
• Bulgarian: рафт (raft) — structure
• Burmese: စင် (cang) — structure
• Catalan: prestatge — structure
• Catalan: estant — structure
• Catalan: lleixa — structure
• Cebuano: estante — structure
• Chechen: терхи (terxi) — structure
• Chinese Cantonese: 架 — structure
• Chinese: 架仔 (zh-min-nan) — structure
• Chinese Mandarin: 架子 (jiàzi) — structure
• Czech: police — structure
• Danish: hylde — structure
• Dutch: schap — structure
• Dutch: rek — structure
• Dutch: plank — structure
• Dutch: legplank — structure
• Esperanto: breto — structure
• Estonian: riiul — structure
• Faroese: hill — structure
• Fijian: vata — structure
• Finnish: hylly — structure
• French: rayon — structure
• French: étagère — structure
• French: tablard — structure
• Friulian: scansìe — structure
• Galician: paramio — structure
• Galician: paraño — structure
• Galician: parañoa — structure
• Galician: andel — structure
• Galician: alzadeira — structure
• Galician: cunqueiro — structure
• Galician: vaseira — structure
• Galician: prateleira — structure
• Galician: estante — structure
• Georgian: თარო (taro) — structure
• German: Regal — structure
• German: Brett — structure
• German: Regalbrett — structure
• German: Schrankbrett — structure
• German: Bord — structure
• German: Wandbrett — structure
• Greek: ράφι (ráfi) — structure
• Gujarati: અભરાઈ (abharāī) — structure
• Hebrew: מַדָּף (madáf) — structure
• Hindi: तख़्ता (taxtā) — structure
• Hungarian: polc — structure
• Hungarian: stelázsi — structure
• Icelandic: hilla — structure
• Indonesian: rak — structure
• Ingush: тархе (tarxe) — structure
• Irish: seilf — structure
• Italian: scaffale — structure
• Italian: mensola — structure
• Italian: ripiano — structure
• Italian: palchetto — structure
• Japanese: 棚 (tana) — structure
• Kalmyk: таг (tag) — structure
• Kazakh: сөре (söre) — structure
• Khmer: ធ្នើរ (tnəə) — structure
• Komi-Permyak: джадж (džadž) — structure
• Korean: 선반 (seonban) — structure
• Kyrgyz: полка (polka) — structure
• Kyrgyz: текче (tekce) — structure
• Lao: ຫິ້ງ (hing) — structure
• Lao: ຊັ້ນ (san) — structure
• Latvian: plaukts — structure
• Ligurian: rician — structure
• Lingala: motáláká — structure
• Lithuanian: lentyna — structure
• Macedonian: полица (polica) — structure
• Malagasy: talantalana — structure
• Malay: rak — structure
• Maltese: xkaffa — structure
• Manx: skelloo — structure
• Māori: paenga — structure
• Māori: whata — structure
• Middle English: stage — structure
• Mongolian: тавиур (taviur) — structure
• Neapolitan: stìglio — structure
• Neapolitan: scanzia — structure
• Norman: ais — structure
• Norman: êtagéthe — structure
• Norwegian Bokmål: hylle — structure
• Norwegian Nynorsk: hylle — structure
• Occitan: laissa — structure
• Ojibwe: desaabaan — structure
• Persian: رف (raf) — structure
• Polish: półka — structure
• Polish: regał — structure
• Portuguese: prateleira — structure
• Portuguese: estante — structure
• Romanian: poliță — structure
• Romanian: raft — structure
• Russian: по́лка (pólka) — structure
• Northern Sami: hildu — structure
• Scottish Gaelic: sgeilp — structure
• Serbo-Croatian: по̀лица — structure
• Serbo-Croatian: ра̏ф — structure
• Serbo-Croatian: pòlica — structure
• Serbo-Croatian: rȁf — structure
• Sicilian: scaffa — structure
• Slovak: polica — structure
• Slovene: políca — structure
• Lower Sorbian: regal — structure
• Lower Sorbian: pólica — structure
• Spanish: estante — structure
• Spanish: balda — structure
• Spanish: anaquel — structure
• Spanish: entrepaño — structure
• Swahili: rafu — structure
• Swedish: hylla — structure
• Tajik: раф (raf) — structure
• Tamil: அடுக்கம் (aṭukkam) — structure
• Tamil: அடுக்கு (aṭukku) — structure
• Tatar: киштә (kiştä) — structure
• Telugu: అర (ara) — structure
• Thai: หิ้ง (hîng) — structure
• Tibetan: བང་ཁྲི — structure
• Turkish: sergen — structure
• Turkish: raf — structure
• Ottoman Turkish: راف (raf) — structure
• Turkmen: tekje — structure
• Udmurt: ӝажы (džažy) — structure
• Udmurt: полка (polka) — structure
• Ukrainian: поли́ця (polýcja) — structure
• Urdu: طاق (tāq) — structure
• Uyghur: جازا (jaza) — structure
• Uzbek: polka — structure
• Uzbek: tokcha — structure
• Venetan: scansìa — structure
• Vietnamese: giá sách — structure
• Vietnamese: giá — structure
• Vilamovian: faht — structure
• Vilamovian: faocht — structure
• Walloon: axhale — structure
• Walloon: axhlete — structure
• Welsh: silff — structure
• Yakut: долбуур (dolbuur) — structure
• Yiddish: פּאָליצע (politse) — structure
• Zulu: ishalufu — structure
• Dutch: schap — capacity
• Dutch: rek — capacity
• French: étagère — capacity
• French: rayonnage — capacity
• Galician: paramio — capacity
• Galician: paraño — capacity
• Galician: parañoa — capacity
• Galician: andel — capacity
• Galician: alzadeira — capacity
• Galician: cunqueiro — capacity
• Galician: vaseira — capacity
• Galician: prateleira — capacity
• Portuguese: prateleira — capacity
• Portuguese: estante — capacity
• Swedish: hylla — capacity
• Walloon: håynaedje — capacity
• Dutch: schap — projecting ledge resembling a shelf
• Scots: bink — projecting ledge resembling a shelf
• Scottish Gaelic: sgeilp — projecting ledge resembling a shelf
• Spanish: ménsula — projecting ledge resembling a shelf
• Spanish: repisa — projecting ledge resembling a shelf
• Welsh: silff — projecting ledge resembling a shelf
• Armenian: շելֆ (šelf) — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Bulgarian: шелф (šelf) — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Galician: recife — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Galician: pedrido — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Galician: brica — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Galician: ariño — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Galician: sirte — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Galician: baixío — reef, shoal, sandbar
• German: Schelf — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Irish: scairbh — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Latvian: šelfs — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Polish: szelf — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Russian: шельф (šelʹf) — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Serbo-Croatian: пличина — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Serbo-Croatian: шелф — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Serbo-Croatian: pličina — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Serbo-Croatian: šelf — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Spanish: arrecife — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Spanish: banco — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Spanish: cordón — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Spanish: bajío — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Swedish: bank — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Swedish: sandbank — reef, shoal, sandbar
• Swedish: kontinentalsockel — reef, shoal, sandbar