A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2000 (DOST Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
(Schelf,) Shelfe, n. Pl. shelves. [e.m.E. shelfe (1545) a sandbank, appar. related etymologically to earlier schelpe (1430–31), shelpe (c1500), OE scylp, glossing L. scopulus and murex a sharp rock in the sea. See the discussion in OED, s.v. Shelf sb.2, and cf. Skelly n.] A ledge of rock in the sea, a skerry. Also fig., = a hidden obstacle or source of danger. —a1688 Wallace Orkney 86.
The ships were born with the violence of the stream against the rocks and shelves —fig. 1604 W. Alexander Crœsus 571.
This self-conceit is a most dangerous shelfe 1612 Id. Elegie 9.
Though generall be the losse, one shelfe confounding quyte [etc.] 1649 G. Gillespie Usefull Case of Conscience Discussed and Risolved 20.
God hath … set so many beacons upon these rockes and shelves that we may beware of them
