On the Shelf Once Described Unmarried Women
A shelf is a flat board for storage. The phrase on the shelf carries a social history worth knowing.
A shelf is a flat board fixed horizontally for holding objects. *On the shelf* means set aside as no longer useful, and its nineteenth-century use was pointed: it described unmarried women considered past the age of marrying. The phrase survives in the neutral sense of a project shelved, but the older application shows how much of English idiom carries assumptions about women's lives. The plural *shelves* follows the same f-to-v rule as *leaf* and *wolf*.
- A storage board. *A bookshelf.*
- To postpone. *The plan was shelved.*
- On the shelf — set aside. *On the shelf.*
- Continental shelf — a submerged ledge. *The continental shelf.*
- Middle Low German — *schelf*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | shelf | A shelf. |
| Plural | shelves | Shelves. |
| Verb | shelve | Shelve it. |
| Past | shelved | Shelved. |
| Compound | shelf life | Shelf life. |
- Put the books on the top shelf.Storage.
- The proposal was shelved.Postponed.
- The continental shelf drops away here.Geology.
Plurals that change f to v
- Shelf / shelves
- Leaf / leaves
- Wolf / wolves
- Knife / knives
- But roof / roofs and chief / chiefs keep the f
Middle Low German *schelf*, a shelf or set of shelves, of Germanic origin.
What did on the shelf mean?
Set aside as no longer wanted. In the nineteenth century it was used of unmarried women considered past marrying age.
Why is the plural shelves?
An old sound rule voiced the f between vowels, which also gives leaves, wolves and knives.