Shelved

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Set or stored on a shelf for organization or later use ; delayed or suspended indefinitely from progress or action
2. Arranged on shelving as a way to hold or display items ; put aside temporarily, often to revisit at a later time
3. Positioned on a flat surface such as a shelf for storage or presentation ; postponed from continuation or development, often without a set resumption date

Etymology: The past tense "shelved" comes from "shelve," a verb that began life as a back-formation from "shelves," the plural of "shelf." People took the plural as if it were a singular verb stem, so "shelve" meant "to place on shelves" and the past form followed from it. Put that way, the verb is younger than the noun it seems to come from. The earlier history is murkier. Late Middle English "shelven" meant "to separate someone or something from another thing, or keep away," and its own origin is uncertain. One possibility links it to "shelf" in the sense of a cupboard or a grassy bank, though that connection is doubted. Another links it to West Frisian "skelf," meaning not level or straight, or oblique. The word's wider family explains how a sense of "sloping" could mix with "storage." Several related meanings, such as "shelf" as a sandbar or shoal, show that the noun itself once described a ledge or raised edge, not only a board for holding objects.

Synonyms: stored, set aside

Antonyms: unfiled, active