means The joint connecting the arm to the trunk, made of the bones, muscles, and ligaments around it — also the act of taking on a burden or pushing through.

from From Old English 'sculdor,' a word shared across the West Germanic family (compare Dutch 'schouder' and German 'Schulter'). Its deeper roots are murky — etymologists can't trace it confidently past Germanic — though some have linked it, uncertainly, to a sense of 'shovel' or 'shield-shaped flat surface,' fitting the broad blade of the shoulder bone. The figurative uses — to 'shoulder' a load, to give someone the 'cold shoulder' — grew from the body part that has always done our heavy lifting.