shop [ME] The earliest shops were small stalls or booths, like the ones you might see today in a market or used by a pavement trader. Shop came into English as a medieval shortening of early French eschoppe ‘lean-to booth’. The activity of shopping dates from the 1750s. The slang sense ‘to inform on’ is earlier, dating from 1548—the original implication was of causing someone to be locked up. Perhaps surprisingly, shop till you drop is as early as 1904.