Scissers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A hand tool made of two crossed blades joined at a pivot, used for cutting paper, cloth or hair
2. A pair of blades pivoted together so that squeezing the handles closes them to cut material
3. Nonstandard spelling of the two-bladed hand implement used to snip or trim paper, fabric and other materials

Etymology: The spelling "scissers" is a variant of "scissors," a tool name whose plural ending has hidden its origin. English borrowed the tool and its name from Old French "cisoires," the plural of "cisoire," a cutting instrument. That French word goes back to a Vulgar Latin "cisoria," formed from Latin "caedere," "to cut," which also gave English words such as "incision" and "concise." Because the English word arrived as a plural noun for a pair of blades, speakers treated it as plural even when describing a single tool, which is why "scissor" later appeared as a singular back-formation. Spellings like "scissers" show the English form drifting toward the way the word sounded in speech.