"S" Word Origins

Skelton

Old English

From Old English scylfe (“deck, shelf”) + tun (“town”). Doublet of Shelton. The alteration of /ʃ/ to /sk/ is down to Old Norse influence.

skeptic

Greek

From Greek "skeptikos," meaning "thoughtful" or "inquiring," from "skeptesthai," "to consider carefully."

skeptical

Origin

From "skeptic" plus the adjective ending "-al."

skepticism

New Latin

From New Latin "scepticismus," built from "skeptic" plus "-ism."

sketch

Dutch

From Dutch "schets," tracing back through Italian "schizzo" to Greek "skhedios," meaning "done off-hand" or "made suddenly."

sketch comedy

English

A compound of sketch, in the sense of a brief and lightly drawn piece, and comedy.

sketchbook

Origin

A compound of "sketch" and "book."

sketchy

Origin

From "sketch" plus "-y," originally meaning rough and unfinished like a sketch.

skew

Origin

The verb is derived from Middle English skeuen, skewe, skewen (“to run at an angle or obliquely; to escape”), from Old Northern French escuer [and other forms], variants of Old French eschuer, eschever, eschiver (“to escape, flee; to avoid”) (modern French esquiver (“to dodge (a blow), duck; to elude, evade; to slip away; to sidestep”)), from Frankish *skiuhan (“to dread; to avoid, shun”), from Proto-Germanic *skiuhijaną (“to frighten”). The English word is cognate with Catalan esquiu (“evasive, shy”), Danish skæv (“crooked, slanting; skew, wry”) (> Norwegian Bokmål skjev), Dutch scheef (“crooked, slanting”), Norwegian skeiv (“crooked, lopsided; oblique, slanting; distorted”), Saterland Frisian skeeuw (“aslant, slanting; oblique; awry”), and is a doublet of eschew. The adjective and adverb are probably derived from the verb and/or from askew, and the noun is derived from either the adjective or the verb.

skewer

Middle English

From Middle English, likely related to a North Germanic root connected to words for "slicing," such as Norwegian "skive."

ski

Old Norse

From Norwegian "ski," from Old Norse "skíð," meaning "stick of wood" or "snowshoe."

skid

Old Norse

From Old Norse "skíð," originally referring to a plank or beam something rests or slides on — the same root as "ski."

skidder

Origin

From skid + -er.

skidoo

Origin

From the trademark Ski-Doo, originally an erroneous rendering of "Ski-Dog" that was adopted as the official brand name of the first snowmobile.

skier

Origin

From "ski" plus the agent suffix "-er."

skiff

Middle French

From Middle French "esquif," traced back through Italian to a Germanic word for "boat" — the same root as "ship."

skift

Origin

From Scots skift (“light shower of rain or snow”), related to skiff (“light rain, snow, etc”) (which see for more) and skiffle.

skill

Old Norse

From Old Norse "skil," meaning "distinction" or "knowledge," ultimately from a root meaning "to split or divide."

skilled

Origin

From "skill" plus the "-ed" ending.

skillet

Latin

From Old French "escuëlette," a small dish, ultimately from Latin "scutella," meaning "tray" or "small dish."

skillful

Middle English

From Middle English "skilful," from "skill" plus "-ful."

skillfully

Origin

From "skillful" plus the adverb ending "-ly."

skilling

Origin

From Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish skilling. Doublet of shilling.

skim

Old French

From Middle English forms related to Old French "escumer," meaning "to remove scum," from a Germanic root for "foam."

skimming

Origin

From skim + -ing.

skimp

Germanic

Likely of North Germanic origin, related to a root meaning "to mock" or "to gesture," though the modern "save/scrimp" sense developed separately.

skimpflation

Origin

Blend of skimp + inflation.

skimpy

Origin

From "skimp" plus "-y."

skin

Origin

From Middle English skyn, skinn, from Old English scinn, from Old Norse skinn (“animal hide”), from Proto-Germanic *skinþą, from Proto-Indo-European *sken- (“to split off”), nasal variant of *skeh₁i-d- (“to cut”). Partially displaced native Old English hȳd (“skin, hide”), from which derives hide. Cognate with Dutch schinde (“bark”), dialectal German Schinde (“fruit peel”); also Breton skant (“scales”), Old Irish cenn (“covering, shell”), Irish scáin (“to tear, burst”), Latin scindō (“to split, divide”), Sanskrit छिनत्ति (chinátti, “to split”).

skinflint

Origin

From the phrase skin a flint (“go to extreme lengths for the sake of gain or economy”), from the brittleness and hardness of flint which makes it almost impossible to remove just its skin without shattering it.

skinhead

Origin

A compound of "skin" and "head," describing the closely shaved hairstyle.

skinned

Origin

From skin (“to remove skin”, verb) + -ed (suffix forming past tenses).

skinner

Origin

From "skin" plus the agent suffix "-er."

skinny

Middle English

From Middle English, originally meaning "resembling skin," from "skin" plus "-y."

skinny dipping

English

From 'skinny' in the sense of 'relating to bare skin' plus 'dip', an old word for a quick swim.

skint

Origin · 1920

British slang from the 1920s, a variant spelling of "skinned" — the idea of being stripped of your money like being stripped of skin.

skinwalker

Origin

From skin + walker.

skip

Middle English

From Middle English skippen, of North Germanic origin — likely related to Old Norse words meaning "to leap" or "push repeatedly", the same root family as the English word "shove".

skipper

Germanic

From Middle Dutch schipper ("one who works a ship"), from an older Germanic root meaning "ship" — related to the English word "shipper".

Skippy

Origin · 1960

Popularised by Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, a 1960s Australian TV show, which also led to "Skippy" being used informally in Britain for Australians.

skirmish

Old French

From Old French escarmouche, tracing back to Italian scaramuccia — the same root that gave English the character name "Scaramouche".

skirt

Old Norse

From Old Norse skyrta, a doublet of the English word "shirt" — both ultimately meant a piece of cloth worn on the body, before splitting into separate garments in meaning.

skit

Old Norse

Origin uncertain; possibly linked to Old Norse words for moving quickly, and connected to the English word "skittish".

skitter

Origin

Likely a frequentative form of an older Scottish/Northern English word skite, meaning to move suddenly and lightly.

skittish

Origin

Probably from a Northern English/Scottish word skite ("to move suddenly and lightly") plus the suffix -ish.

skittle

Origin

Origin unknown. Perhaps of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse skutill (“bolt, harpoon”), related to skjóta (“to shoot”), but the OED dismisses this connection as conjecture. The Old Norse word is related to Swedish and Danish skyttel (“shuttle, child's toy”). Compare also Old English sċytel (“a dart, bolt”). More at shuttle.

skive

Origin

Probably from French esquiver (“slink away”), from Middle French esquiver (“to escape”), from Spanish esquivar (“to avoid, reject, elude”), from esquivo (“contemptuous, loathsome”), itself from Old French eschiver, of East Germanic origin, from Gothic *𐍃𐌺𐌹𐌿𐌷𐍃 (*skiuhs, “afraid, barefaced”), from Proto-Germanic *skeuhaz (“afraid, frightened”). Cognate with English shy, eschew.

Skoda

Origin

Borrowed from Czech Škoda.