An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/schief

by Friedrich Kluge

schief, adjective, ‘oblique, awry. sloping,’ a Middle German and Low German word; Middle High German and Middle German schief, ‘awry, distorted’; cognate with Anglo-Saxon sčâb, Old Icelandic skeifr, ‘awry,’ North Frisian skiaf, Dutch scheef, ‘awry’ (whence English skew is borrowed), Schmalkald. šeip. High German dialects also imply a Middle High German schëp (pp), ‘awry’; Hessian and Franconian šëp, Suabian šeps. Besides these primitively Teutonic cognates skibb, skaib (whence Lettic schkîbs, ‘awry,’ is borrowed), Upper German has skieg, which is represented by Middle High German ‘schiec, ‘awry,’ Bavarian and Alemannian šiegen, šieggen, ‘to waddle’ (respecting the ie see Stiege and Wiege). They are all connected, like Greek σκίμπτω, ‘to bend,’ with an Aryan root skī̆q, skaiq.