skirt

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /skɜːt/, US /skɝːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Norse skyrta (“shirt, kirtle”),^[2][3][4][5] cognate with Old English scyrte, which gave shirt.^[2][3][6] Barnhart finds the shift from shirt to the lower part of a dress unclear, but compares Middle Low German schörte, apron, skirt, and Low German Schört, in some places a woman's gown.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The lower part of a woman's dress, hanging from the waist: before 1300 in the OED, before 1325 in Barnhart's Cursor Mundi;^[7][2] as a surname from 1224.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The lower part of a man's gown or robe is from about 1330,^[7] and the tails of a coat from 1598.^[7] A border or edge, as in outskirts, is recorded by the late 15th century.^[3][4] Women collectively are skirt from the 1550s, 1560 in the OED,^[3][7] and the slang sense, a young woman, from 1906.^[3] The verb, to border or form the edge of, is from about 1600,^[3][5] and to pass along the edge, or to avoid, from the 1620s.^[3]

Timeline

• 1224 – Skirt (surname).^[2]
• before 1300 – a woman's skirt.^[7]
• late 15th century – an edge, border.^[3]
• 1560 – women collectively.^[7]
• c. 1600 – to skirt (verb).^[3]
• 1906 – a young woman (slang).^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A garment hanging from the waist, worn chiefly by women and girls.
2. The part of a dress or coat below the waist.
3. A flap or edge, as round the base of a hovercraft.

Verb

1. To go round the edge of; to border.
2. To avoid dealing with a subject: to skirt the issue.

Word family

• skirted
• skirter
• skirtless
• skirtlike
• outskirt
• maxiskirt
• midiskirt
• miniskirt

Related words

• shirt
• short
• outskirts

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press