SHED  .. (I) A small hut, shelter or outhouse, especially one with a " shed roof " or " lean-to," a roof with only one set of rafters, falling from a higher to a

lower wall, like an aisle roof . " Shed " is also the term applied to a large roofed shelter open at the sides for the storage of goods, rolling-stock, locomotives, &c., on a railway or dock-wharf . According to Skeat, the word is a Kentish form of " shade," " shadow," in 0 . Eng. steed, sceadu, cf . Ger . Schatten; the ultimate origin is the root ska-, to cover, seen in Gr . 1K16, shadow, UK1iv'i, tent, shelter, stage, whence Eng . " scene "; the Eng . " sky " comes from a closely allied root sku, also to cover, cf . Lat. obscurus . (2) To spill, to scatter, to cast off; originally the word seems to have meant to part, to divide, a use only surviving in " watershed." The 0 .

Eng. verb was sceddan, in

Mid . Eng. shceden, to divide, separate . " Shed in the sense of to spill has, however, by some etymologists been taken to be a separate word from that meaning to part; it would in that case appear to be connected with 0 .