English
sky
Sky comes from Middle English sky, from Old Norse ský ‘cloud’, from Proto-Germanic *skiwją ‘cloud, sky’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skiwô‘cloud cover, haze’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skiwją‘cloud; sky’reconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350ský‘cloud; (plural) sky’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sky‘sky; cloud’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596sky
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skiwô‘cloud cover, haze’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skiwją‘cloud; sky’reconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350ský‘cloud; (plural) sky’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sky‘sky; cloud’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596sky
Earliest quotation: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto): “For beſides the groues, / The skyes, the fountaines,…”
The story
The noun is derived from Middle English sky (‘sky; cloud; mist’), also spelled ski, skie, [and other forms], from Old Norse ský (‘cloud’), from Proto-Germanic *skiwją (‘cloud; sky’), from *skiwô (‘cloud; cloud cover, haze; sky’) (whence Old English sċēo (‘cloud’) and Middle English skew (‘air; sky; (rare) cloud’)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (‘to cover; to conceal, hide’). Partly displaced Old English heofon, which survives in the reflex heaven, still sometimes used in the sense of sky, but usually in high or poetic register.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- ‘to cover, bedeck’
Today it means
noun The atmosphere above a given point, especially as visible from the surface of the Earth as the place where the sun, moon, stars, and clouds are seen.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *skiwô / sky