sky
English edit
Etymology edit
The noun is derived from Middle English ski, skie, sky (“firmament, heavens, sky; cloud; cloud of mist or vapour; fog, mist; (astrology) certain configuration of the heavens; (astronomy) sphere of the celestial realm; (physiology) cloudiness, smoky residue (for example, in urine)”) [and other forms],[1] from Old Norse ský (“cloud”), from Proto-Germanic *skiwją (“cloud; sky”), from *skiwô (“cloud; cloud cover, haze; sky”) (whence Old English sċēo (“cloud”) and Middle English skew (“air; sky; (rare) cloud”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover; to conceal, hide”).[2]
The verb is derived from the noun.[3]
The English word is cognate with Old English scēo (“cloud”), Old Saxon scio, skio, skeo (“light cloud cover”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål sky (“cloud”), Old Irish ceo (“mist, fog”), Irish ceo (“mist, fog”). It is also related to Old English scūa (“shadow, darkness”), Latin obscūrus (“dark, shadowy”), Sanskrit स्कुनाति (skunāti, “he covers”). See also hide, hose, house, hut, shoe.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: skī, IPA(key): /skaɪ/
Audio (RP) (file) Audio (GA) (file) - Homophones: Sky, Skye
- Rhymes: -aɪ
Noun edit
sky (plural skies)
- The atmosphere above a given point, especially as visible from the surface of the Earth as the place where the sun, moon, stars, and clouds are seen.
- Synonyms: blue, firmament, heaven, (chiefly Scotland) lift, (literary or poetic, archaic) welkin
- That year, a meteor fell from the sky.
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
- For beſides the groues, / The skyes, the fountaines, euery region neare / Seeme all one mutuall cry. I neuer heard / So muſicall a diſcord, ſuch ſweete thunder.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 13, page 40:
- His wearie ghoſt aſſoyld from fleſhly band, / Did not as others wont, directly fly / Vnto her reſt in Plutoes grieſly land, / Ne into ayre did vaniſh preſently, / Ne chaunged was into a ſtarre in sky: […]
- c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
- [I]f you doe not all ſhew like guilt twoo pences to mee, and I in the cleere skie of Fame, ore-ſhine you as much as the full moone doth the cindars of the element, (which ſhew like pinnes heads to her) beleeue not the worde of the noble: […]
- [I]f you do not all appear like gilt twopences [i.e., counterfeit coins] next to me, and I, in the clear sky of fame, outshine you as much as the full moon outshines the cinders of the element [i.e., the stars] (which look like pinheads next to the moon), then don't believe me: […]
- 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 396, column 1:
- [A] Nobler Sir, ne're liu'd / 'Twixt sky and ground.
- 1660 November 11 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 1 November 1660]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 327:
- I went with some of my relations to Court, to shew them his Maties cabinet and closset of rarities; […] Here I saw […] amongst the clocks, one that shew'd the rising and setting of the Sun in ye Zodiaq, the Sunn represented by a face and raies of gold, upon an azure skie, observing ye diurnal and annual motion, rising and setting behind a landscape of hills, the work of our famous Fromantel; and severall other rarities.
- 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 103, lines 245–248:
- [T]he cunning Leach ordains / In Summer's Sultry Heats (for then it reigns) / To feed the Females, e're the Sun ariſe, / Or late at Night, when Stars adorn the Skies.
- 1700, Mat[thew] Prior, “Carmen Seculare, for the Year 1700. To the King.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 164:
- Through the large Convex of the Azure Sky, / (For thither Nature caſts our common Eye) / Fierce Meteors ſhoot their arbitrary Light, / And Comets march with lawleſs Horror bright; […]
- 1725, Homer, “Book III”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 120, lines 411–412:
- A length of Ocean and unbounded sky, / Which ſcarce the Sea-fowl in a year o'erfly […]
- 1807, William Wordsworth, “To a Sky-lark”, in Poems, in Two Volumes, volume I, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, page 81:
- There is madness about thee, and joy divine / In that song of thine; / Up with me, up with me, high and high, / To thy banqueting-place in the sky!
- 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 154–155:
- Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious. Glorious!
- 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 40:
- So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
- 1926, Irving Berlin (lyrics and music), “Blue Skies”:
- Blue skies / Smiling at me / Nothing but blue skies / Do I see
- With a descriptive word: the part of the sky which can be seen from a specific place or at a specific time; its climate, condition, etc.
- I lay back under a warm Texas sky.
- We’re not sure how long the cloudy skies will last.
- 1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Truth”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 80:
- Yon ancient prude, whoſe wither'd features ſhow / She might be young ſome forty years ago, / […] / With boney and unkerchief'd neck defies / The rude inclemency of wintry ſkies, / And ſails with lappet-head and mincing airs / Duely at clink of bell, to morning pray'rs.
- 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC, part II, stanza 7, page 13:
- All in a hot and copper sky / The bloody sun at noon, / Right up above the mast did stand, / No bigger than the moon.
- 1799–1805 (dates written), William Wordsworth, “Book I. Introduction.—Childhood and School-time.”, in The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind; an Autobiographical Poem, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 21:
- [T]he stars / Eastward were sparkling clear, and in the west / The orange sky of evening died away.
- 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “A Dream of Fair Women”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza LXVII, page 201:
- With that sharp sound the white dawn's creeping beams, / Stol'n to my brain, dissolved the mystery / Of folded sleep. The captain of my dreams / Ruled in the eastern sky.
- 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza 5, pages 58–59:
- But now shine on, and what care I, / Who in this stormy gulf have found a pearl / The counterclaim of space and hollow sky, […]
- 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, “Burglary”, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, →OCLC, page 35:
- She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
- (chiefly literary and poetic, archaic) Usually preceded by the: the abode of God or the gods, angels, the souls of deceased people, etc.; heaven; also, powers emanating from heaven.
- This mortal has incurred the wrath of the skies.
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
- Now am I dead, now am I fled, my ſoule is in the sky.
- 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 9:
- Sweet Queen of Parlie, Daughter of the Sphære, / So maist thou be tranſlated to the skies, / And give reſounding grace to all Heav'ns Harmonies.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 44-49:
- Him the Almighty Power / Hurld headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Skie / With hideous ruine and combuſtion down / To bottomleſs perdition, there to dwell / In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire, / Who durſt defie th' Omnipotent to Arms.
- 1697, Virgil, “The Second Pastoral. Or, Alexis.”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 8, line 86:
- The Gods to live in Woods have left the Skies.
- 1709, Mat[thew] Prior, “Henry and Emma, […]”, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 271:
- Mars ſmil'd and bow'd, the Cyprian Deity / Turn'd to the glorious Ruler of the Sky: / And Thou, She ſmiling ſaid, Great God of Days / And Verſe; behond my Deed; and ſing my Praiſe.
- 1720, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book XXII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume VI, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 13, lines 218–220:
- The gazing Gods lean forward from the Sky: / To whom, while eager on the Chace they look, / The Sire of Mortals and Immortals ſpoke.
- 1731, Jonathan Swift, “Judas”, in Thomas Sheridan and John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VIII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 113:
- By the just vengeance of incensed skies, / Poor bishop Judas late repenting dies.
- Ellipsis of sky blue.
- 1667 March 12 (first performance), John Dryden, Secret-Love, or The Maiden-Queen: […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], published 1669, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 26:
- But yet methinks, thoſe knots of Sky, do not / So well with the dead colour of her Face.
- 1668, George Etherege, She Wou’d if She Cou’d, a Comedy. […], London: […] [John Macocke] for H[enry] Herringman, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, page 39:
- [W]hy, / Brother, I have beſpoke Dinner, and engag'd / Mr. Rake-hell, the little ſmart Gentleman I have / Often promis'd thee to make thee acquainted / Withal, to bring a whole Bevy of Damſels / In Sky, and Pink, and Flame-colour'd Taffeta's.
- (mathematics, theoretical physics) The set of all lightlike lines (or directions) passing through a given point in space-time.
- Synonym: celestial sphere
- (obsolete, informal, rare) In an art gallery: the upper rows of pictures that cannot easily be seen; also, the place where such pictures are hung.
- (obsolete) A cloud. [13th–16th c.]
Usage notes edit
The word can be used correctly in either the singular or plural form, but the plural is now mainly literary.
Alternative forms edit
- skie (obsolete)
Derived terms edit
- big-sky thinking
- blow sky high
- blue-sky, blue sky
- blue sky law
- blue-sky thinking
- deep-sky
- eye in the sky
- is the sky blue
- mackerel sky
- mackerel sky and mare's-tails make lofty ships carry low sails
- mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails
- night-sky, night sky
- no-sky line
- pie-in-the-sky, pie in the sky
- praise to the skies
- reach for the sky
- sky advertising
- sky ball
- sky-blue, sky blue, Sky Blue
- sky-blue pink, sky blue pink
- sky-born
- sky burial
- skyclad
- sky daddy
- sky-diving, sky diving
- sky fairy
- sky-flood
- sky garden
- sky girl
- sky-high
- sky island
- sky juice
- sky lantern
- skylark
- skylight
- skyline
- sky lounge
- sky marshal
- sky parlor, sky parlour
- sky pilot
- sky rat
- skyrocket
- sky scooter
- skyscraper
- skysill
- skyward
- skywards
- streets in the sky
- take to the sky
- the sky is the limit, the sky's the limit
Translations edit
Verb edit
sky (third-person singular simple present skies, present participle skying, simple past and past participle skied or skyed)
- (transitive)
- (informal) To drink (a beverage) from a container without one's lips touching the container.
- (informal, dated) To hang (a picture on exhibition) near the top of a wall, where it cannot easily be seen; (by extension) to put (something) in an undesirable place.
- Antonym: floor
- 1883 December, M[ariana] G[riswold] Van Rensselaer, “George Fuller”, in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume V (New Series; volume XXVII overall), number 2, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co.; London: F[rederick] Warne & Co., →OCLC, page 227, column 1:
- The artists—I mean the younger brood, and not the Brother Academicians who "skied" his pictures—were the first and the most enthusiastic in his [George Fuller's] praise.
- (slang, dated) To toss (something) upwards; specifically, to flip (a coin).
- 1894, C[ornelis] Stoffel, “Preface”, in Studies in English, Written and Spoken: For the Use of Continental Students (First Series), Zutphen, Gelderland, Netherlands: W. J. Thieme & Co.; London: Luzac & Co., →OCLC, footnote 1, page IX:
- In ‘skying’ a coin for the purpose of deciding a point at issue between two parties, two methods are in vogue: there is either the ‘slow torture’ of spinning the coin thrice, the decision to go against the tosser-up, if the other party, twice out of the three times, guesses right on which side the coin shall fall; or, the ‘sudden death’ method in which one toss is decisive; […]
- (sports)
- To clear (a high jump bar, hurdle, etc.) by a large margin.
- (ball games) To hit, kick, or throw (a ball) extremely high.
- 2009 September 8, Geoff Baker, “Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Angels: 09/08 game thread”, in The Seattle Times[1], Seattle, Wash.: The Seattle Times Company, published 29 November 2012, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 September 2021:
- Hernandez [i.e., Félix Hernández] walked the bases loaded, then fell behind 3–1 in the count to Bobby Abreu, who then skied the next pitch to left for a sacrifice fly.
- 2011 January 22, Tim Love, “Arsenal 3 – 0 Wigan”, in BBC Sport[2], archived from the original on 25 March 2021:
- Van Persie [i.e., Robin van Persie] skied a penalty, conceded by Gary Caldwell who was sent off, and also hit the post before scoring his third with a shot at the near post.
- (obsolete) To raise (the price of an item on auction, or the level of the bids generally) by bidding high.
- 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, “The Wreck of the ‘Flying Scud’”, in The Wrecker, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, […], →OCLC, page 146:
- All of a sudden he appeared as a third competitor, skied the Flying Scud with four fat bids of a thousand dollars each, and then as suddenly fled the field, remaining thenceforth (as before) a silent, interested spectator.
- (intransitive)
Derived terms edit
- sky the towel, sky the wipe (chiefly Australia)
Translations edit
References edit
- ^ “skī(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ Compare “sky, n.1”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2021; “sky, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- ^ “sky, v.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “sky, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading edit
Anagrams edit
Danish edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Possibly from Middle Low German schūwe, schū, from Proto-West Germanic *skeuh. Compare English shy and German scheu.
Adjective edit
sky (neuter sky, plural and definite singular attributive sky)
Synonyms edit
References edit
- “sky,4” in Den Danske Ordbog
Etymology 2 edit
From Old Danish sky, from Old Norse ský, from Proto-Germanic *skiwją (“cloud, cloud cover”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, conceal”).
Noun edit
sky c (singular definite skyen, plural indefinite skyer)
Inflection edit
References edit
- “sky,1” in Den Danske Ordbog
Etymology 3 edit
From French jus, from Latin iūs (“gravy, broth, sauce”). The Danish word was probably borrowed via German Jus or Schü, pronounced [ˈʃyː], with a regular substitution of German /ʃ/ with Danish /sk/.
Noun edit
sky c (singular definite skyen, not used in plural form)
References edit
- “sky,2” in Den Danske Ordbog
Etymology 4 edit
Possibly from Middle Low German schūwen, derived from the adjective.
Verb edit
sky (imperative sky, present skyr or skyer, past skyede, past participle skyet)
- To shun.
References edit
- “sky,3” in Den Danske Ordbog
Middle English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Old Norse ský, from Proto-Germanic *skiwją. Doublet of skew.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sky (plural skyes)
- The atmosphere or sky; that which lies above the ground.
- A cloud or mist (mass of water droplets).
- (rare, astronomy) A certain layout or part of the sky.
- (rare, physiology) Clouds in urine.
Descendants edit
References edit
- “skī(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-07-23.
Norwegian Bokmål edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle Low German schuwe.
Adjective edit
sky (neuter singular sky, definite singular and plural sky or skye, comparative skyere, indefinite superlative skyest, definite superlative skyeste)
Synonyms edit
Etymology 2 edit
From Old Norse ský, from Proto-Germanic *skiwją (“cloud, cloud cover”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, conceal”).
Noun edit
sky f or m (definite singular skya or skyen, indefinite plural skyer, definite plural skyene)
Derived terms edit
Etymology 3 edit
Possibly from Middle Low German schuwen
Verb edit
sky (imperative sky, present tense skyr, simple past skydde, past participle skydd, present participle skyende)
Derived terms edit
References edit
- “sky” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle Low German schuwe.
Adjective edit
sky (neuter singular sky, definite singular and plural sky or skye, comparative skyare, indefinite superlative skyast, definite superlative skyaste)
Etymology 2 edit
From Old Norse ský. Akin to English sky.
Noun edit
sky f (definite singular skya, indefinite plural skyer, definite plural skyene)
Derived terms edit
Etymology 3 edit
Possibly from Middle Low German schuwen
Verb edit
sky (present tense skyr, past tense skydde, past participle skydd or skytt, passive infinitive skyast, present participle skyande, imperative sky)
Derived terms edit
References edit
- “sky” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Old Swedish edit
Etymology edit
From Old Norse ský, from Proto-Germanic *skiwją.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
skȳ n
Declension edit
Descendants edit
- Swedish: sky
Scots edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English sky, from Old Norse ský.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sky (plural skies)
- sky
- It's a fair braw sky we'v got the nicht. It's quite a beautiful sky we've got tonight.
- daylight (especially at dawn)
- A wis up afore the sky. I was up before sunrise.
- skyline, outline against the sky (especially of a hill)
- He saw the sky o a hill awa tae the west. He saw the outline of a hill in the west.
Derived terms edit
Verb edit
sky (third-person singular simple present skies, present participle skies, simple past skyin, past participle skiet)
Swedish edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Old Swedish skȳ, from Old Norse ský, from Proto-Germanic *skiwją, compare English sky.
Noun edit
sky c
- (countable) sky
- (countable) cloud
- Synonym: moln
- tunga skyar
- heavy skies
- lätta skyar
- light clouds
- regnskyar
- rainy skies ("rain skies")
Usage notes edit
Similar to English sky in somewhat ambiguously referring to clouds in certain expressions, often in the plural. Like in English, native speakers are likely to think "sky" rather than "cloud" and unconsciously process the plural as idiomatic. The usual modern word for cloud is moln.
Declension edit
Declension of sky | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | sky | skyn | skyar | skyarna |
Genitive | skys | skyns | skyars | skyarnas |
See also edit
- himmel (“heaven”)
Etymology 2 edit
Noun edit
sky c
- (uncountable, cooking) The liquid that remains in a frying pan after the fried meat is ready.
Etymology 3 edit
From Middle Low German schǖwen, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *skiuhijan. Compare origin of skygg.
Verb edit
sky (present skyr, preterite skydde, supine skytt, imperative sky)
Conjugation edit
Active | Passive | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Infinitive | sky | skys | ||
Supine | skytt | skytts | ||
Imperative | sky | — | ||
Imper. plural1 | skyn | — | ||
Present | Past | Present | Past | |
Indicative | skyr | skydde | skys | skyddes |
Ind. plural1 | sky | skydde | skys | skyddes |
Subjunctive2 | sky | skydde | skys | skyddes |
Participles | ||||
Present participle | skyende | |||
Past participle | skydd | |||
1 Archaic. 2 Dated. See the appendix on Swedish verbs. |
Derived terms edit
- bränt barn skyr elden
- sky som pesten (“avoid like the plague”)
Further reading edit
- sky in Svensk ordbok.
- sky in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)