Etymology

skirt

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Today it means: A separate article of clothing, usually worn by women and girls, that hangs from the waist and covers the lower torso and part of the legs. Full definition →

Middle English skyrte ← Old Norse skyrta ← Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker-der.?
  2. Proto-Germanic*skertaną
  3. Proto-Germanic*skurtaz
  4. Proto-Germanic*skurtijǭ
  5. Old Norseskyrta
  6. Middle Englishskyrte
  7. English todayskirt

From Middle English scyrt, skirt, skyrte, skyrthe, skyrtte, from Old Norse skyrta, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ (“apron; skirt”), from *skurtaz (“short; deficient”), from *skertaną (“to cut off”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off; to divide”). Doublet of shirt. Cognates Cognate with Yola shoorth, skoorth (“shirt”), North Frisian Sjürt (“shirt”), Saterland Frisian Schoarte (“apron”), Dutch schort (“apron”), German Schürze (“apron”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk skjorte (“shirt”), Faroese skjúrta (“shirt”), Icelandic skyrta (“shirt”), Swedish skjorta (“shirt”), Irish sciorta (“skirt; strip”), Welsh sgert (“skirt”).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*skurtijǭ all →

shirt

Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker- all →

cardshareshortscreenshirtcarolcurvecrucialarrangecircuschancellorscrutinyripperscareshearcoronashrinerafflecirqueshredcruxscornscourgeshardruckcoronavirusscreedskerryReepscrimp

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.