Shippens

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A simple farm building where cows or other cattle are kept, especially one used for housing them during winter
2. Plural of a dialect term for a shelter or barn in which livestock such as cows are sheltered and fed
3. Rural outbuildings used to house dairy cattle, often attached to a farmhouse or set in a yard beside it

Etymology: "Shippens" is the plural of "shippen", a word for a cowshed or stall. The singular comes from Middle English "schipne" or "schepne", descending from Old English "scypen", which meant a cow-shed or stall. Its deeper root is a Proto-Germanic form meaning "stall", built as a diminutive of a base meaning "shed" or "barn", so the word originally named a small shelter. The word is related to "shop", which shares that same ancient base for a simple enclosed building, and to the older form "shepen". The shared ancestry shows that a shop and a shippen were once close cousins in meaning: both were humble structures for housing something, whether goods or livestock.

Synonyms: byre, cowshed