schour

Middle English

Alternative forms

• schoure, schowre, schoure, shour, shoure, shower, showre
• scur, shur (Early Middle English)

Etymology

Inherited from Old English sċūr, from Proto-West Germanic *skūru, from Proto-Germanic *skūrō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃuːr/

Noun

schour (plural schoures)

1. Rainfall, precipitation (falling waterdrops)
   • 1387–1400, [Geoffrey] Chaucer, “Here Bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunt́burẏ”, in The Tales of Caunt́bury (Hengwrt Chaucer; Peniarth Manuscript 392D), Aberystwyth, Ceredigion: National Library of Wales, published [c. 1400–1410], →OCLC, folio 2, recto:

     Whan that Auerill w^t his shoures soote / The droghte of march hath ꝑced to the roote / And bathed euery veyne in swich lycour / Of which v̄tu engendred is the flour […]

     When that April, with its sweet showers / Has pierced March's drought to the root / And bathed every vein in fluid such that / with its power, the flower is made […]

2. (poetic) An attack or assault (whether physical, emotional, or rhetorical)
3. (poetic, by extension) A battle; a military conflict.
4. (poetic, rare) A flow or stream of liquid.
5. (poetic, rare) A profusion of blessings.

Descendants

• English: shower
• Scots: shour, shouer, shoor, shooer

References

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