Dictionary.net

• she-vä', n. a Hebrew point (:) written below its consonant, and indicating properly the absence of a vowel (simple sheva). It is either unsounded, as at the close of a syllable (silent sheva), or given a short breathing or neutral sound, as at the beginning of a syllable (vocal sheva). Sometimes it is compounded with the short vowels, forming compound shevas.

1908 - Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
By Thomas Davidson