skyscraper

Etymology

It is formed from English sky + scraper, the agent noun of scrape.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Klein compares French gratte-ciel, from gratter (“to scrape”) and ciel (“sky”), and German Wolkenkratzer, from Wolke (“cloud”) and Kratzer (“scraper”).^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small triangular sail set high on a ship's mast, a skysail: 1791, in E. P. Simcoe's diary.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1794,^[7] and Etymonline notes that the word was also the name of a racehorse in 1789.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word was applied jokingly to many tall or high-reaching things: a very tall hat or bonnet (1800, in Walter Scott), a very tall horse (1826), an unusually tall person (1847), a tall story (1840) and the rider of a penny-farthing bicycle (1892).^[2] In sport it was a ball hit high into the air, from 1842.^[2][4] The sense that prevailed, a very tall building of many storeys, is first recorded in a headline of the Chicago Tribune of 25 February 1883;^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1888 in a Chicago context,^[3] and Popik notes that in the 1880s it was applied to tall buildings both in Chicago and in New York.^[8] According to Hendrickson, journalists took the name from the sails that scraped the sky high on a ship's mast.^[9] In Cockney rhyming slang skyscraper is paper, especially a newspaper,^[10][11] and since 2000 it has also been a tall vertical banner advertisement on a web page.^[2]

Timeline

• 1789 – the name of a racehorse.^[3]
• 1791 – a triangular skysail.^[2]
• 1800 – a very tall hat or bonnet (obsolete by 1921).^[2]
• 1826 – a very tall horse (obsolete).^[2]
• 1842 – a ball hit high into the air.^[2]
• 1847 – an unusually tall person.^[2]
• 1883 – a very tall building of many storeys.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1888.^[3]
• 1969 – a newspaper, in rhyming slang.^[11]
• 2000 – a vertical banner on a web page.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A very tall building with many storeys: Her office is on the fortieth floor of a skyscraper.^[12][7][2]
2. Something or someone unusually tall.^[7][4][2]
3. (nautical) A small triangular skysail.^[7][2][4]
4. (computing) A tall, narrow banner advertisement down the side of a web page.^[2]
5. (slang) A ball hit high into the air.^[4][2]
6. (rhyming slang) Paper, especially a newspaper.^[10][11]

Related words

• sky
• scrape
• scraper
• skysail
• skyer

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 p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Skyscraper", 24 January 2006
9. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
10. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
11. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins