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skipper

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Etymology and origin of the English word skipper

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈskɪp.ə/[1]
  • US: /ˈskɪp.ɚ/[1]

skipper1 captain of a ship

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1177 in the surname Scipre
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch schipper via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Middle Dutch schip

Etymology

The ship's captain is inherited from Middle English skypper,[2] also skippere and scippere,[3] borrowed from Middle Dutch schipper (“owner or commander of a ship; sailor”), also scipper,[4][5][6][7][8][9] and partly its cognate borrowed from Middle Low German schipper.[4][8][9][10] The Dutch word is formed from schip (“ship”) and the agent suffix,[4][5][8][2] and the Dutch noun is cognate with the English ship.[11][2] Wiktionary traces it through Old Dutch *skipāri to Proto-Germanic *skipārijaz.[3] Etymonline adds that in some cases the English word may come from, or have been influenced by, the cognates Anglo-Norman eskipre, Old French eschipre and Old English scipere,[6] and Weekley also derives the Old French word from the Dutch one.[12] The native shipper was used in the same sense from the late 15th to the 17th century.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The master of a ship, especially of a small trading, merchant or fishing vessel, and formerly any seaman: 1390 in the OED,[4] 1391 in Barnhart, who finds it earlier in the surname Scipre (1177).[5][13] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century and the surname to the late 12th.[6]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "a shipmaster or shipboy" and quoted Congreve's "refined like a Dutch skipper from a whale-fishing".[14] In Scotland and Northumberland it was the head man on a fishing boat or keel.[15] The captain of a sports team was called a skipper from 1830,[4][6] first in curling, according to Weekley,[12] and the word was shortened to skip in the 19th century.[8][6] In 1888 Stevenson called high white-crested waves skipper's daughters.[4] Services' slang applied it to a commanding officer and to the captain of an aircraft from 1906,[4] and American slang to a police captain or sergeant from 1929;[4][16] from 1912 it was also the title of a leader of Sea Scouts.[4] The verb, to act as skipper of a vessel or team, is recorded from 1883 in Barnhart and the OED's heading,[5][4] with a first quotation of 1893.[4][2]

Timeline

  • 1177 – in the surname Scipre.[5]
  • 1390 – the master of a ship.[4][5]
  • 1755 – Johnson: a shipmaster or shipboy.[14]
  • 1830 – the captain of a sports team.[4][6]
  • 1883 – verb, to act as skipper of.[5][4]
  • 1906 – a commanding officer; the captain of an aircraft.[4]
  • 1912 – the leader of a troop of Sea Scouts.[4]
  • 1929 – slang, a police captain or sergeant.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The master or captain of a ship, especially of a fishing, small trading or pleasure boat: The skipper ordered the crew to reef the mainsail.[2][10][7][4]
  2. The captain of an aircraft.[10][2][4]
  3. The captain, manager or coach of a sports team.[10][2][7][4]
  4. A leader or boss, such as a commanding officer.[7][2][4]

Verb

  1. To act as skipper of a boat, an aircraft or a team: She skippered the yacht across the Atlantic.[2][10][7][4]

Word family

  • skippership

skipper2 one that skips

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1250 Genesis and Exodus
Ultimate origin
Middle English skippen,-ere

Etymology

The one that skips is inherited from Middle English skippere,[2][3] formed from Middle English skippen (“to skip”) + -ere,[2] that is skip and -er.[4][9][6][17] The verb skip is probably from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse skopa (“to take a run”).[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A locust: in Genesis and Exodus, composed about 1250,[4][6] a sense now obsolete and rare even then.[4] Dictionary.com dates this first use to 1200–50,[17] and Merriam-Webster to the 13th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline records Skipper as the name of a horse about 1300, and the surname Cicely la Skippere in the early 14th century.[6] The general sense, one who or that which skips or dances, appears in the Promptorium Parvulorum about 1440,[4] and Shakespeare used it contemptuously of a youth.[4] The word then became a name for animals that jump or dart: the saury pike (1674), the click beetle or skipjack (1796), the small butterflies of the family Hesperiidae (1817), named for their quick, darting flight,[4][6] and, in dialect and American use, the cheese maggot and similar maggots (from 1828).[4][16] In Cumberland and Cornwall a skipper was the maggot of the small flesh-fly.[15] One who skips passages in reading has been called a skipper since 1824,[4][9] and criminal slang of 1870 used it for one who runs away.[16] A frequentative verb skipper, to skip or hop, is recorded from 1845.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – a locust (obsolete).[4][17]
  • c. 1300 – as the name of a horse.[6]
  • c. 1440 – one who skips or jumps.[4][6]
  • 1674 – the saury pike.[4]
  • 1796 – a click beetle.[4]
  • 1817 – a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae.[4][6]
  • 1824 – one who omits passages in reading.[4]
  • 1828 – a cheese maggot.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person or thing that skips: The skippers in the playground kept time with a rhyme.[10][2][9]
  2. Any of the small butterflies of the family Hesperiidae, with a hairy, mothlike body and a quick, darting flight.[10][9][4]
  3. A maggot that infests cheese or cured meat.[2][9][4]
  4. A click beetle.[2][9][4]
  5. The saury.[10][4]
  6. A reader who leaves out passages.[9][4]
  7. (obsolete) A locust.[4][9]

Word family

  • mudskipper

Usage notes

Two minor words share the spelling.[4][9] A slang skipper, a barn or shed where vagrants slept and later any place for sleeping rough, is recorded from 1567 in Harman's Caveat for Common Cursitors;[4][16] it is perhaps from Welsh ysgubor (“barn”).[4][9][16] A skipper for a ladle or scoop used in sugar-making (1688) is Dutch schepper (“scoop, ladle”).[4][9]

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  4. ^ 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 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ 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)
  16. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

  • scrub · also from Middle Low German
  • damp · also from Middle Low German
  • wig · also from Middle Low German
  • knob · also from Middle Low German
  • stump · also from Middle Low German
  • wake · also from Middle Low German
  • trade · also from Middle Low German
  • deal · also from Middle Low German
Cite this entry

“Skipper.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/skipper. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·