Meaning

noun an event in which something is displaced without rotation

noun a qualitative change

noun the time period during which you are at work

originThe noun is from Middle English schyft, shyffte. Cognate with German Schicht (“layer, shift”). The verb is from Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijaną, *skiptijaną, from earlier *skipatjaną (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb- (“to separate, divide,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0