skid

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4] It is perhaps borrowed from Old Norse skíð (“stick of wood, billet”),^[5][6][7][8] the source of ski;^[5][9][10] Etymonline calls it probably from a Scandinavian source akin to that word.^[11] The OED notes that both form and sense suggest a connection with the Old Norse word and with Old English scīd (“a thin piece of wood”), the source of shide, but that skid does not phonetically represent either of them.^[2] The Old Norse and Old English nouns continue Proto-Germanic *skīdą (“log”), also the source of Old High German skīt,^[12][1] from Proto-Indo-European *skeyt- (“to cut, split”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A beam, plank or piece of timber on which something rests or is supported: 1609–10, in the churchwardens' accounts of Cranbrook, Kent.^[2][5] Etymonline dates the noun to about 1600 and Merriam-Webster to about 1610.^[11][6]

Semantic evolution

The beam or plank came to be used to slide or roll heavy things along (1782),^[2][11] and in American logging a road of skids was laid to haul logs (1851).^[2][11] From 1766 a skid was also a block or iron shoe fastened to a wheel to stop it turning on a steep descent,^[2][5] and the verb, first recorded in John Ray's collection of country words (1673), meant to apply such a skid to a wheel.^[2][11] Etymonline explains the modern senses from this: a wheel held by a skid slides along without turning.^[11] The verb is recorded of a wheel slipping without revolving from 1838, and of slipping sideways on a wet or muddy road from 1884;^[2][5][11] Etymonline dates the noun "a sliding along" to 1890 and its use of motor vehicles to 1903.^[11] The word passed to aircraft: a runner under an aircraft (1909) and a sideways slide in a turn (1911 for the verb).^[2] In the plural, skids entered phrases of decline and ruin in the United States: hit the skids (1909) and put the skids under (1918).^[11][2][9] From 1920 the verb was used of prices falling fast.^[2] Word Origins traces skid row to skid road, a part of town used by loggers in the late 19th century.^[9] In dialects from Scotland to Cornwall, to skid a wheel was to lock it going downhill.^[13]

Timeline

• 1609–10 – a beam or plank on which something rests.^[2][5]
• 1673 – verb, to apply a skid to a wheel.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1674.^[5][6]
• 1743 – a fender to protect a ship's side.^[2]
• 1766 – a shoe or block for locking a wheel.^[2][5]
• 1782 – a plank or roller on which heavy things are slid.^[2][11]
• 1838 – of a wheel, to slide without turning.^[2][5]
• 1878 – to haul logs on skids.^[2]
• 1884 – to slip sideways on a road.^[2][5]
• 1907 – noun, an act of skidding, a sideslip.^[2]
• 1909 – a runner under an aircraft.^[2] Hit the skids, to decline fast.^[11]
• 1920 – figurative, to go wrong; of prices, to fall fast.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of a vehicle, to slide sideways or out of control, especially after braking or losing traction: The van skidded on the icy bend.^[14][15][2]
2. Of a wheel, to slide without turning.^[15][14][2]
3. To cause a vehicle to skid.^[14][2]
4. Of an aircraft, to slide sideways away from the centre of a turn.^[15][14][2]
5. To slow or stop a wheel with a skid or brake.^[15][6][2]
6. To haul or slide something, such as logs, on skids.^{[15][6][2][14]}
7. (informal) Of prices or fortunes, to fall quickly.^[2]

Noun

1. An act of skidding; a sideways slide.^[15][14][2]
2. A plank, log or beam used as a support, or as a track for sliding or rolling heavy objects.^[15][6][2]
3. A pallet for handling goods.^[15]
4. A shoe or block placed against a wheel to stop it turning.^[6][2]
5. A runner on the underside of an aircraft.^[2]
6. the skids: in phrases such as hit the skids and put the skids under, a rapid decline or ruin.^[2][9][11]

Word family

• skidproof
• skiddingly
• skidway
• tailskid
• antiskid
• skidder
• nonskid
• skiddy

Related words

• ski
• shide
• skid row
• scud

Usage notes

A separate verb skid, to run or go quickly, recorded from 1815 in Fanny Burney's journal, is a variant of scud.^[2][16][17] In Norfolk, Kent, Devon and Cornwall dialect skid also meant to scatter or spread manure with a spade.^[13] In Australian and American slang skid meant to leave or go away, from 1881.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ a b 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)
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com