skim

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English skimmen, also skemen,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Old French escumer (“to remove scum, skim”),^{[5][6][3][7][8]} from escume (“scum, foam”), now écume,^[3][7][9] which is of Germanic origin:^[8][6] compare Old High German scūm (“scum, foam”) and German Schaum,^[3][7] from Proto-Germanic *skūmaz.^[10][1] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the early 12th century, meaning both to skim and to foam.^[11] The i in place of the u of scum is explained in different ways: the OED thinks it may be partly due to a verb skimmer, where the original stress on the last syllable helped the narrowing,^[5] and Klein compares brisk from French brusque and ribbon from ruban.^[7] The MED, Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the ODE also allow a back-formation from Middle English skymour, now skimmer, the utensil, recorded from the late 14th century,^{[2][12][13][14][3]} which Hoad traces to Old French escumeure, now écumoire.^[12] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com take the verb as a variant or alteration of scumen (“to skim”).^[4][15] Skeat derived it from Scandinavian, comparing Danish skumme (“to skim”).^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart dates the verb, in the sense "to froth", to 1373, and the sense "to remove floating matter from a liquid" to before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.^[6] Skym is recorded as a surname from 1285.^[6] The MED's first quotations come from the same Trevisa text, where boiled things are skimmed and purged of foam.^[2] The OED's first record is about 1430, in a cookery book,^[5] and Etymonline dates the verb to the early 15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The kitchen sense, clearing a liquid of scum or taking the cream off milk, came first;^[5][3] in the 15th century the verb also meant to scour the sea for enemies, a sense lost by the early 16th century.^[2][5] From before 1586, in Sidney's Arcadia, it meant to deal with something superficially,^[6][5] and in the 1610s it came to mean to throw a stone so that it skips over water.^[3] The sense "move lightly and rapidly over a surface" (1650s) came from the motion of skimming a liquid,^[3] and Hoad dates "move or act lightly over" to the 16th century.^[12] Weekley notes that the reading sense, from the 18th century, was first skim over, like a swallow, with no thought of taking off cream;^[9] the OED and Etymonline date "read rapidly" to 1799.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) explained the verb as properly to scum.^[17] In 20th-century American slang it came to mean concealing part of one's takings, especially from gambling, to avoid tax (1966),^[5] and an employee holding back part of the profits.^[18] The noun replaced scum for froth on a liquid (1539), and was used in North America for a thin layer of ice (1807); the adjective (1794) is short for skim milk,^[5] itself recorded from 1596, in Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV.^[6] In dialect skim-dick and skim-cheese named poor cheese made from skimmed milk.^[19]

Timeline

• 1373 – to froth.^[6]
• before 1398 – to remove floating matter from a liquid.^[6][2]
• c. 1430 – to clear a liquid of scum; to take the cream off milk.^[5]
• c. 1440 – to scour the sea (obsolete by 1513).^[5][2]
• 1539 – noun, scum (obsolete by 1743).^[5]
• before 1586 – to treat superficially, in Sidney's Arcadia.^[6][5]
• 1596 – skim milk, in Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV.^[6]
• 1610s – to throw a stone so that it skips over water.^[3]
• 1650s – to move lightly over a surface.^[3]
• 1794 – adjective, skimmed; made of skim milk.^[5][4]
• 1799 – to read rapidly or carelessly.^[5][3]
• 1807 – noun, a thin layer of ice (North American).^[5]
• 1966 – US slang, to hide part of one's takings to avoid tax.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To remove scum, fat or cream from the surface of a liquid: She skimmed the foam off the boiling jam.^[20][4][5]
2. To glide quickly and lightly over a surface: Gulls skimmed over the harbour.^[20][3]
3. To throw a flat stone so that it bounces across water.^[20][3]
4. To read quickly, without close attention: He skimmed the report on the bus.^[20][5]
5. To cover, or become covered, with a thin layer, as of ice.^[20][5]
6. (slang) To take part of the takings dishonestly, especially to avoid tax.^[5][18]

Noun

1. A thin layer or film: a skim of ice on the puddles.^[4][5]
2. The act of skimming.^[4]
3. Short for skim milk.^[4][5]
4. (slang) Money taken dishonestly from takings.^[18]

Adjective

1. Skimmed; made of skim milk.^[4][5][13]

Word family

• skimmer
• skim milk

Related words

• scum
• scumble
• meerschaum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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 Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
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 c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins