Schewyng

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Archaic spelling of the act of displaying, exhibiting, or revealing something to others so that it can be seen
2. An older form of the verb meaning to make something visible, demonstrate it, or reveal it to someone's view
3. Obsolete form describing the action of presenting or exposing something so that it becomes plainly visible

Etymology: This is a Middle English spelling of "showing," the form that "show" took when it was used as a verb or a noun for the act of displaying something. Medieval scribes often wrote the "sh" sound as "sch," and "schewen" (later "shewen" and then "show") was the common verb. The verb goes back to Old English "scēawian," which meant "to look at, behold, examine," not "to display." Over the centuries the sense moved from the viewer's act of looking to the act of making something visible for others to see. The "-ing" ending is the ordinary suffix that turns the verb into a participle or verbal noun, so "schewyng" would have meant both the act of exhibiting and the thing exhibited.