Drag to pan · scroll to zoom
Drag to rotate
Tracing “”…
Where does the word "skin" come from? It comes from Old Norse skinn, and was adopted directly into English (1200s).
Read the full story
Where does the word "skin" come from? It comes from Old Norse skinn, and was adopted directly into English (1200s).
Skin’s story begins in Old Norse: skinn meant “an animal hide.” An animal's hide, later the covering of the human body. It reached English by 1200s as skin. Settled as the standard English word for the body's outer covering. Today, skin means the natural outer covering of the body.
- Stage 1 · Old Norse · medieval skinn "an animal hide", an animal's hide, later the covering of the human body.
- Stage 2 · English · 1200s skin "the outer covering of the body", settled as the standard English word for the body's outer covering.