The same [faith] inclined Moses to exchange the dignities and delights of a court for a state of vagrancy and servility.—Barrow, Sermon 3, On the Apostles’ Creed.
[Shed. This verb was once in common use in the sense of to separate, divide, or part. This ‘shed’ is the representative of the O.E. ‘sceādan’ (scādan), the equivalent of the modern German ‘scheiden.’ With these words is connected the modern geographical term ‘watershed,’ i.e. water-divider. ‘To shed’ is still used in the North in the sense of to divide or separate (Halliwell). From this verb comes the word ‘sheeding,’ the name of a territorial division in the Isle of Man. Probably our modern ‘shed,’ to scatter, pour, may be the same word as ‘shed,’ to separate, with a development of meaning, but the relation of the two words has not been satisfactorily made out yet.]
They say also that the manner of making the shed [διακρίνεσθαι] of new-wedded wives’ hair with the iron head of a javelin came up then likewise.—North, Plutarch’s Lives, p. 22.
They were never so careful to comb their heads as when they should to the battle; for then they did noint their selves with sweet oils, and did shed their hair.—Id., ibid. p. 45.
Sheer. It is curious that Christopher Sly’s declaration that he was ‘fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale’ (Taming of the Shrew, Induction, sc. 2) should have given so much trouble to some of the early commentators upon Shakespeare. ‘Sheer,’ which is pure, unmixed, was used of things concrete once, although mostly of things abstract now.
They had scarcely sunk through the uppermost course of sand above, when they might see small sources to boil up, at the first troubled, but afterward they began to yield sheer and clear water in great abundance.—Holland, Livy, p. 1911.
Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain,
From whence this stream through muddy passages
Hath held his current.
Shakespeare, King Richard II., act v. sc. 3.