Etymologically
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skid

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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