skeleton

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈskɛlətən/; /ˈskɛlɪtən/ (UK)^[1]

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin sceleton,^{[2][3][4][5][1]} from Ancient Greek σκελετόν (skeletón), as in skeletòn sôma “dried-up body, mummy”,^[6][2][3] the neuter of skeletós “dried up”,^[6][4][3][1] from skéllein “to dry up, parch”.^[6][3][2][1] The root is Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- “to parch, wither”,^[2][1] and Greek sklērós “hard” is related.^[4][1] The Greek word also passed into Late Latin as sceletus, the source of French squelette and Spanish esqueleto.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bones of a body taken together, first recorded in 1578.^[7][3][4] An early English variant was skelton.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Greek the word could mean a dried-up body or mummy.^[2][5] In English, from the bones the word spread to anything thin or bare: an emaciated person (1620s),^[2][7] a mere outline or rough draft (around 1600),^[2][3] and the supporting framework of a structure (1650s),^[2][7] the image behind skeleton key.^[2][3] A military use for a unit of minimum size (1778) led to skeleton crew.^[2][3] A skeleton in the closet, a secret source of shame, is from 1812 according to Etymonline;^[2] the OED's first quotation is from 1845.^[7]

Timeline

• 1578 – “bones of the body”.^[7][3][4]
• 1607 – “a mere outline”.^[7][3]
• 1629 – “very thin person”.^[7]
• 1778 – adjective; military “of minimum size”.^[3][4][2]
• 1812 – skeleton in the closet.^[2]
• 1854 – skeletal.^[3]
• 1891 – skeleton crew.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The framework of bone and cartilage that supports and protects the body of a vertebrate; also the hard supporting structure of many invertebrates.
2. A very thin person or animal.
3. A supporting framework, as of a building.
4. An outline, or something reduced to its essential parts.
5. A head-first sled race on a small toboggan, or the toboggan itself.

Adjective

1. Reduced to the minimum needed, as in skeleton staff.

Word family

• skeletonic
• skeletonless
• skeletonlike
• cytoskeleton
• endoskeleton
• exoskeleton
• skeletal
• skeleton key

Related words

• sclerosis
• mummy

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. [1] [2] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. [1] [2] [3] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press