skater

Etymology

It is formed from English skate + -er, an agent noun from the verb.^[2][3][4] The verb skate comes from the noun,^[3][2] which is from Dutch schaats, from Middle Dutch schaetse;^[3][2][5] English took the Dutch singular for a plural and made a new singular skate.^[3][2][6] The Middle Dutch word is from Old Northern French escache (“stilt”),^[2][3][5] and Etymonline and Ayto trace that to Frankish *skakkja (“stilt”).^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who skates on ice: 1700, in Samuel Parker's Six Philosophical Essays.^[2][3][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word followed its verb, which is recorded from 1696 for gliding over ice on skates;^[2] roller skates are recorded from 1876, and skater was also used of a skateboarder by 1977 according to Etymonline.^[2][3][9] The long-legged bugs that run on the surface of still water are called skaters or pond skaters (the latter from 1895);^[2][8][5] in Warwickshire dialect a skater was a fly that darts in zigzags over water.^[10] In American underworld slang of the 1930s a skater was a legless beggar who moved about on a wheeled board.^[11]

Timeline

• 1700 – one who skates on ice.^[2][3][8]
• 1895 – pond skater, a water bug that skims on the surface.^[2]
• 1931 – a legless beggar on a wheeled board (US underworld slang).^[11]
• 1977 – a skateboarder.^[3][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who skates, on ice or on roller skates: The skaters circled the frozen pond until dusk.^[2][8][5]
2. A person who rides a skateboard.^[5][2]
3. A water strider or pond skater.^[8][5]

Related words

• skate
• skateboard
• skateboarder
• shake

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com