Vocabulary

[mgaryza]

Please, Does anybody know what "sheweth" means?
Thank you

 

[5jj]

Please, Does anybody know what "sheweth" means?

It would have been helpful if you had given more context.

It means 'shows'. -eth was once an alternative third person singlular ending to -s, and it was once possible to spell show with e. The word is now no longer used.

 

[mgaryza]

Novel Persuasion by Jane Austen
The context is this paragraph:

<<The house and grounds, and furniture, were approved, the Crofts were approved, terms, time, every thing, and every body, was right; and Mr Shepherd's clerks were set to work, without there having been a single preliminary difference to modify of all that "This indenture sheweth." >>

Thank you

 

[bhaisahab]

Novel Persuasion by Jane Austen
The context is this paragraph:

<<The house and grounds, and furniture, were approved, the Crofts were approved, terms, time, every thing, and every body, was right; and Mr Shepherd's clerks were set to work, without there having been a single preliminary difference to modify of all that "This indenture sheweth." >>

Thank you

This is from a novel written in the early 19th century. fivejedjon's post explains.

 

[5jj]

Although 'show' with an e had largely disappeared by the 1930s, I still remember seeing signs such as this All tickets must be "shewn"? | Flickr - Photo Sharing! at railway stations well into the 1960s.

 

[Rover_KE]

Mgarysa, please note that sheweth would have been a better title for your question than Vocabulary, and that you should have given the context in the first post.

Rover

 

[Tdol]

Although 'show' with an e had largely disappeared by the 1930s, I still remember seeing signs such as this All tickets must be "shewn"? | Flickr - Photo Sharing! at railway stations well into the 1960s.

I had a student from Eastern Europe not long after the Berlin Wall came down, and her teacher had previously taught Russian, so was suddenly having to learn and teach English, and clearly only had an ancient book to use as she'd taught them to use shewn.

 

[mgaryza]

I agree Rover. I will do better next time.

 

[5jj]

I had a student from Eastern Europe not long after the Berlin Wall came down, and her teacher had previously taught Russian, so was suddenly having to learn and teach English, and clearly only had an ancient book to use as she'd taught them to use shewn.

I had students in a similar situation when I first came to Prague.

I felt sorry for the students, who had been taught an English that would have looked and sounded rather quaint fifty years ago. I also felt very sorry for the teachers who were obliged, almost overnight, to switch from teaching a language in which they had some expertise, to one in which they were often having to keep one chapter ahead of the students - if they even had a chapter.