skin

Pronunciation: /skɪn/

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: A2 — Elementary

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a natural protective body covering and site of the sense of touch
  2. noun an outer surface (usually thin)
  3. noun body covering of a living animal

Etymology

From Middle English skyn, skinn, from Old English scinn, from Old Norse skinn (“animal hide”), from Proto-Germanic *skinþą, from Proto-Indo-European *sken- (“to split off”), nasal variant of *skeh₁i-d- (“to cut”). Partially displaced native Old English hȳd (“skin, hide”), from which derives hide. Cognate with Dutch schinde (“bark”), dialectal German Schinde (“fruit peel”); also Breton skant (“scales”), Old Irish cenn (“covering, shell”), Irish scáin (“to tear, burst”), Latin scindō (“to split, divide”), Sanskrit छिनत्ति (chinátti, “to split”).

In classic literature

Synonyms

tegument, cutis

Semantic network

Broader (hypernyms)
body covering, connective tissue
Narrower (hyponyms)
prepuce, buff, hangnail, thick skin, investment, skin graft

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