Thank you for your response Peter.
So it seems that things are pretty much as I thought them to be.
The Oxford Dictionary on Historical principles places first usage of the current spelling in the early 1500's, and as you have demonstrated we simply do not have the necessary tools to write the word as it was written originally.
Yes, I understand that the Scythians of the ancient Greeks & Romans were a nomadic people, but I suspect that a close examination of the etymology of "Scythian" might well provide a different root.
As to actual working scythes being used as weapons, I guess they could have been, one thought that comes to mind immediately is that they might be very useful in removing the lower parts of a horse's leg --- or a man's leg for that matter. Echoes of MP & the Search for the Holy Grail.
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