skinner

Etymology

It is formed from English skin + -er, at first from the noun skin and in later use partly from the verb;^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster gives the Middle English form as skynner.^[5] The noun skin is from Old Norse skinn (“animal hide, fur”).^[3] Comparable agent nouns are Old Norse skinnari (“a dealer in skins; a skinner, tanner”),^[3][2] Swedish skinnare, Danish skinder, Middle Dutch schinder, Middle Low German schinner and German Schinder.^[2] The OED notes that the word is first recorded as a surname, and that place names such as “Skinnereswell” (1197, Middlesex) and “Scinergreve” (1273, now Skinningrove in Yorkshire) show that it was in use earlier.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who prepares or sells skins and hides; a furrier: 1255, as a surname, in the Close Rolls of Henry III.^[2] Etymonline dates the common noun to the late 14th century and the surname to the mid-13th.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined a skinner simply as "a dealer in skins", adding "or pelts" in 1773.^[6] The OED now treats this trade sense as historical, except in the name of a livery company.^[2] From the verb skin came "a person who skins animals, a flayer", recorded from 1699 in Dampier's Voyages,^[2] or the 1690s in Etymonline,^[3] and in 1872 a knife for skinning.^[2] In the American Revolutionary War the Skinners were a band of irregular fighters who raided in Westchester County, New York (first recorded 1780).^[2][5][3] In slang a skinner was someone who strips others of their money, a swindler or cheat, from 1781 in Green's dictionary^[7] and 1797 in the OED;^[2] 18th-century cant also used it for a thief, usually a woman, who lured children away and stripped them of their clothes,^[7] a use still recorded in London in Mayhew's London Labour (1851).^[8] In North America a skinner was a driver of mules or horses, a teamster, from 1870;^[2] Green's dictionary takes it as a shortening of mule skinner, recorded from the same year.^[7][2][5] In New Zealand slang (1943) a person who is out of money is a skinner.^[2]

Timeline

• 1255 – a dealer in skins (as a surname).^[2]
• late 14th century – a dealer in skins, as a common noun.^[3]
• 1699 – a person who skins animals.^[2]
• 1780 – a member of an irregular band in the American Revolutionary War.^[2]
• 1781 – slang, a swindler.^[7]
• 1870 – in North America, a driver of mules or horses.^[2]
• 1872 – a skinning knife.^[2]
• 1943 – in New Zealand slang, a person who is out of money.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who prepares, sells or deals in animal skins, pelts or hides; a furrier.^[9][5][2][6]
2. A person who removes the skins of animals; a flayer.^[5][2]
3. (North America) A driver of a team of mules or horses; a teamster.^[2][7]
4. (US history) A member of a band of irregular fighters who raided in Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolutionary War.^[5][2]
5. (slang, now rare) A person who strips others of their money; a swindler.^[2][7]

Word family

• muleskinner

Related words

• skin

Usage notes

The surname Skinner also gives the attributive use in Skinner box and related terms, after the American psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904–90).^[2][4]

References

1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins