Scye

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The opening in a garment through which the arm passes, where the sleeve is attached to the body of the shirt or jacket
2. The curved seam or armhole around the shoulder and underarm area of a piece of clothing where a sleeve is fitted
3. The cut-out edge of a shirt, jacket or dress that surrounds the arm, formed where the sleeve meets the main body of the garment

Etymology: The "scye" is the armhole of a garment, the opening where a sleeve is set into the body of a shirt or coat. It is a word most people meet only in tailoring and dressmaking, and its roots lie in the butcher's shop rather than the sewing room. In Scots, "say" (or "sey") named a cut of beef, and it was from this meat sense that the word passed into English for the curved cut of cloth around the shoulder, a shape that resembles a cut of meat. The Scots word is thought to have come from an older form related to Old Norse "segi" or "sigi", meaning a chunk or a bite, which traces back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning to cut. The English word is therefore a borrowing from Scots rather than a native English formation, and its shared ancestry with the Norse word ties the garment term to a much older idea of slicing.

Synonyms: armhole