Etymologically
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skipper

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Pronunciation

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

skipper1 captain of a ship

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

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