Scafan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic Old English verb meaning to shave, scrape or plane a surface smooth
2. A obsolete verb from Old English describing the act of shaving or scraping something clean
3. Old English term for scraping or paring a surface, as with a blade or sharp tool

Etymology: Old English "scafan" meant to scrape, plane or pare a surface, usually with a blade. Its past tense was "sceōf" and its past participle "scafen," which explains why the modern "shaven" survives beside "shaved." Its close relatives show the same idea of scraping. German "schaben" means to scrape, and Old Norse "skafa" had the same sense, so the verb was part of a shared Germanic vocabulary for working a surface by scraping it.