skillet

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English skelet, also skelett,^[2][3][4][5] of disputed origin.^[6][5][7][8] The American Heritage Dictionary, Klein and the Shorter Oxford take it as borrowed from Old French escuelete (“a small plate”),^[3][9][10] a view Etymonline, Partridge and the Oxford Dictionary of English give as possible;^[7][11][12] the French word is a diminutive of escuele (“plate, platter”) (Modern French écuelle),^[3][7][10] from Latin scutella (“serving platter”),^[7][3] itself a diminutive of scutra (“dish, platter”).^[3][9][13] Ayto adds that the Latin word was altered in post-classical times to *scūtella, the source through Old French of Middle English skele (“dish”), recorded only once.^[13] Merriam-Webster and Weekley instead take it as formed in English from skele, a pail or bucket, recorded from the early 14th century, and the suffix -et;^{[2][14][7][5]} that skele was borrowed from a Scandinavian source, compare Old Norse skjóla (“pail, bucket”).^{[7][5][15][14]} Collins and Skeat prefer this second view, and Ayto mentions it as an alternative.^[15][16][13] The OED calls the word of obscure origin: it rejects a link with eschelette (“little bell”) and finds both the form and the sense of the Old French word for a small plate different, but thinks the ending and the kitchen use of the thing make an Anglo-Norman or Old French source probable.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A metal cooking pot, usually with three or four feet and a long handle, used for boiling liquids and stewing meat: 1403, in the records of the borough of Nottingham.^[6] Barnhart dates the form skelett to 1404 and finds Skelete as a surname in 1332;^[5] Etymonline gives about 1400, as skellet, a pan for boiling or frying.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as a small kettle or boiler, quoting Shakespeare's Othello: "Let house-wives make a skillet of my helm".^[17] The old long-handled pot with feet, used on the hearth, is now labelled chiefly British,^[2] while in North America the word has come to mean a frying pan.^[10][2][3] The American Heritage Dictionary notes that frying pan and skillet are now nearly interchangeable, although they were once distinct regional words.^[3] The Dictionary of American Regional English finds skillet widespread in the United States, somewhat more frequent in the Midland, the Gulf States and Texas, and quotes it from 1630; the pan, often of cast iron, formerly had legs and a lid.^[18] The English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Ireland, England and America, in forms such as skellet and skellit, for a small metal vessel with a long handle used for boiling, and in some counties for a brass preserving pan.^[19] In American slang, an old car could be called a skillet (1938).^[20]

Timeline

• 1332 – Skelete, as a surname.^[5]
• 1403 – a cooking pot with feet and a long handle.^[6] Barnhart dates the form skelett to 1404.^[5]
• 1630 – the pot, in the first American record, in the letters of John Winthrop.^[18]
• 1938 – American slang, an old car.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A frying pan, especially a heavy one of cast iron (chiefly North American): She fried the potatoes in a big iron skillet.^{[3][10][2][18]}
2. (chiefly British) A small pot or saucepan with a long handle, often standing on three or four legs, for cooking on an open hearth.^{[2][3][15][6]}
3. A flat mold in which a precious metal is cast as bullion.^[2]

Related words

• scuttle

Usage notes

The OED and Merriam-Webster record an unrelated skillet, a thin wooden veneer used in making matchboxes, from 1888; its origin is unknown, and the OED sees no evident connection with the pan.^[6][2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
19. ^ 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)
20. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com