Etymograph

English

skink

Skink may come from Middle Low German schink.

  1. Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600schinkuncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1623skink

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600schinkuncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1623skink

Earliest quotation: 1623, Francis Bacon: “For there are in the Flesh , Bones ,…”

The story

The word is cognate with Danish skinke (‘ham’), Middle Dutch schenke, schinke (‘shin; hough; ham’), Icelandic skinka (‘ham’), Norwegian skinke (‘ham’), Old English ġesċincio, ġesċinco (‘kidney fat’), Old High German skinka, skinko (‘shank; shin bone’) (Middle High German schinke (‘shank; shin bone; ham’), modern German Schinken (‘ham; pork from the hindquarters’)), Old Saxon skinka (‘ham’), Old Swedish skinke (modern Swedish skinka (‘ham’)).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- ‘to limp’

shank, 2 more

Another origin of skink

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEσκίγγοςskíngos‘skink, a kind of lizard’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEscincus
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600scinc
  4. Englishtodayskink

Another origin of skink

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kong-osreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skankaz‘askew’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skankijaną‘to skew, tilt, tip’reconstructed
  4. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500scinkenuncertain
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500skinken
  6. Englishtodayskink

Today it means

noun A shin of beef.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Middle Low German schink / skink

Shirt and support for this word