skill

      English

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      Pronunciation

      Etymology 1

      From Middle English skilen (also schillen), partly from Old English scylian, scielian (“to separate, part, divide off”); and partly from Old Norse skilja (“to divide, separate”); both from Proto-Germanic *skilōnan, *skiljanan (“to divide, limit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kalǝ-, *(s)kelǝ- (“to split, cut”). Cognate with Danish skille (“to separate, discard”), Swedish skilja (“to distinguish, differentiate, part”), Icelandic skilja (“to understand”), Dutch schelen (“to make a difference”).

      Verb

      skill (third-person singular simple present skills, present participle skilling, simple past and past participle skilled)

      1. (transitive) To set apart; separate.
      2. (transitive, chiefly dialectal) To discern; have knowledge or understanding; to know how (to).
        • (Can we date this quote?) Herbert:
          I can not skill of these thy ways.
      3. (intransitive) To have knowledge or comprehension; discern.
      4. (intransitive) To have personal or practical knowledge of; be versed or practised; be expert or dextrous.
      5. (intransitive, archaic) To make a difference; signify; matter.
        • (Can we date this quote?) Herbert:
          What skills it, if a bag of stones or gold / About thy neck do drown thee?
        • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Scott:
          It skills not talking of it.

      Etymology 2

      From Middle English skill, skille (also schil, schile), from Old English *scile and Old Norse skil (“a distinction, discernment, knowledge”), from Proto-Germanic *skilin (“separation, limit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kalǝ-, *(s)kelǝ- (“to split, cut”). Cognate with Danish skel (“a separation, boundary, divide”), Swedish skäl (“reason”), Dutch verschil (“difference”).Dutch schillen (verb) (“to sperate the outer layer (schil) from the product”).

      Noun

      skill (countable and uncountable; plural skills)

      1. Capacity to do something well; technique, ability. Skills are usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities, which are often thought of as innate.
      Synonyms
      Derived terms
      Related terms
      Translations
      capacity to do something well

      Adjective

      skill (comparative more skill, superlative most skill)

      1. (UK, slang) great, excellent
        • 1987, Teresa Maughan, Letters (in Your Sinclair issue 18, June 1987)
          Well, unfortunately for you, my dearest Waggipoos, I'm much more skill than you!
        • 1991, Wreckers (video game review in Crash issue 88, May 1991)
          This game is skill. Remember that because it's going to sound really complicated.
        • 1999, "Andy Smith", I am well skill (on Internet newsgroup alt.digitiser)
          And I am skiller than you.

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      Last modified on 13 June 2013, at 22:19