shale

See also: shalë

English

Etymology

From Middle English schale (“shell, husk; scale”), from Old English sċealu (“shell, husk, pod”), from Proto-Germanic *skalō (compare West Frisian skaal (“dish”), Dutch schaal (“shell”), schalie (“shale”), German Schale (“husk, pod”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”) (compare Lithuanian skalà (“splinter”), Old Church Slavonic скала (skala, “rock, stone”), Polish skała (“rock”), Albanian halë (“fish bone, splinter”), Sanskrit कल (kalá, “small part”)), from to split, cleave (compare Hittite [script needed] (iškalla, “to tear apart, slit open”), Lithuanian skélti (“to split”), Ancient Greek σκάλλω (skállō, “to hoe, harrow”)). Doublet of scale. See also shell.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃeɪl/
Rhymes: -eɪl
- Audio (UK) (file)

Noun

Shale fragments of Marcellus Shale in talus

shale (countable and uncountable, plural shales)

A shell or husk; a cod or pod.
- c. 1610s, George Chapman, Batrachomyomachia
  the green shales of a bean
(geology) A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
- 2007 March 23, Patricia Leigh Brown, “The Window Box Gets Some Tough Competition”, in New York Times‎:
  As on all large green roofs, the soil is not dirt exactly but a gravel-like growing medium of granulated pumice, shales, clays and other minerals.

Usage notes

Before the mid-19th century, the terms shale, slate and schist were not sharply distinguished. Shales that are subject to heat and pressure alter into slate, then schist and finally to gneiss.

Derived terms

oil shale
shale oil
shaley
shaleionaire
shaly

Related terms

gneiss
schist
slate

Translations

shell, husk, cod, pod

Finnish: kuori (fi)
Spanish: cáscara (es), vaina (es)

sedimentary rock

Bulgarian: шиста f (šista)
Catalan: esquist (ca) m
Chinese:
Cantonese: 頁岩, 页岩 (jip⁶ ngaam⁴)
Mandarin: 頁岩／页岩 (zh) (yèyán)
Esperanto: skisto
Finnish: savikivi, liuske (fi)
French: schiste (fr) m
Georgian: თიხიანი ფიქალი (tixiani pikali)
German: Tonschiefer m
Hungarian: agyagpala (hu), pala (hu)
Icelandic: leirsteinn m, leirflögur f pl
Italian: scisto (it) m
Japanese: 頁岩 (けつがん, ketsugan), 泥板岩 (でいばんがん, deibangan)
Korean: 혈암(頁岩) (hyeoram)
Norman: bliu-pièrre f
Norwegian:
Bokmål: leirskifer (no) m, skifer (no) m
Nynorsk: leirskifer m, skifer m
Persian: شیست‎ (fa) (šist)
Portuguese: xisto (pt)
Russian: сла́нец (ru) m (slánec)
Serbo-Croatian: škriljac (sh), škriljevac
Spanish: esquisto (es) m, pizarra (es) f
Swedish: lerskiffer, skiffer (sv)
Tagalog: eskuwisto
Turkish: şeyl (tr), şist (tr)

Verb

shale (third-person singular simple present shales, present participle shaling, simple past and past participle shaled)

To take off the shell or coat of.

Synonyms

shell

Translations

to take off the shell, husk, cod, pod

Bulgarian: обелвам (bg) (obelvam)
Finnish: kuoria (fi)
French: écoquiller (fr), décoquiller (fr), écaler (fr), décortiquer (fr)

Anagrams

Hales, Heals, Sahel, Saleh, Selah, hales, halse, heals, leash, selah, sheal

Chickasaw

Noun

shale

bus