skill
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: skĭl
ipa: /skɪl/
ipa: [skɪɫ]
note: l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [skɪo̯]
note: l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [skɪʊ̯]
note: l-vocalizing: nonstandard, England
ipa: [skiːo̯]
note: l-vocalizing: nonstandard, England
ipa: [skiːʊ̯]
rhymes: -ɪl
Forms: form: skills
form: skil
Etymology: From Middle English skill, skille (also schil, schile), from Old Norse skil (“a distinction, discernment, knowledge”), from Proto-Germanic *skilją (“separation, limit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”). Cognate with Danish skel (“a separation, boundary, divide”), Swedish skäl (“reason”), Dutch verschil (“difference”) and schillen (“to separate the outer layer (schil) from the product”, verb).
Senses: examples: text: Where did you pick up that skill?
text: With great skill, she navigated through the tricky passage.
text: Doing that coaching course not only taught me useful skills on the field, but also some important life skills.
text: I have heard the French-man hath good skill in his rapier.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 45:
text: Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: The skill was not in creating a grid full of words, but in producing clues cryptic enough to baffle the puzzler, yet constructed so honestly that they could be solved by any intelligent person who knew the conventions.
ref: 2013 November 26, Simon Hoggart, “Araucaria's last puzzle: crossword master dies”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 26, page 43:
synonyms: ability
coordinate_terms: talent[Appendix:Glossary#loosely|loosely]] synonymous>
knowledge
training#Noun
education
glosses: A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
examples: text: Him so I sought, and so at last I fownd
Where him that witch had thralled to her will,
In chaines of lust and lewde desyres ybownd
And so transformed from his former skill,
That me he knew not, nether his owne ill;
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, , stanzas 1-5, page 54:
text: Methinks I should know you, and know this man;
Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant
What place this is; and all the skill I have
Remembers not these garments; nor I know not
Where I did lodge last night. […]
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]:
glosses: Discrimination; judgment; propriety; reason; cause.
examples: text: And Howell Dha shall goodly well indew
The salvage minds with skill of just and trew;
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, , stanzas 4-5, page 45:
text: […] This desert soil
Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;
Nor want we skill or art from whence to raise
Magnificence […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: 'I kenna whatna man ye are,' he says, 'but ye have the skill of lassies' hearts. Tell me truly, is there no way to win her to common love?'
ref: 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
glosses: Knowledge; understanding.
examples: text: Richard was well ſtored with men, the bones; and quickly got money, the ſinews of warre; by a thousand Princely ſkills gathering ſo much coin as if he meant not to return, becauſe looking back would unbowe his reſolution.
ref: 1639, Thomas Fuller, “Richard of England and Philip of France Set Forward to the Holy Land; the Danger of the Interviews of Princes”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [and sold by John Williams, London], →OCLC, book III, page 118:
glosses: Display of art; exercise of ability; contrivance; address.
Synonyms: word: ability
word: technique
word: aptitude
word: capacity
word: capability
word: competency
word: competence
word: cunning
word: dexterity
word: ease
word: facility
word: knack
word: list
word: prowess
word: moxie
word: potential
word: proficiency
word: skill
word: talent
word: tekkers
word: touch
Derived terms: de-skill
Dreyfus model of skill acquisition
everyday skill
game of skill
hard skill
life skill
person having ordinary skill in the art
person of ordinary skill in the art
re-skill
skilful
skillful
skill ceiling
skill crane
skilled
skill floor
skillfulness
skill issue
skill-less
skill-lessness
skill monkey
skill point
skill set
skillset
skill shot
skill-stop
skill tester
skill tree
skill up
soft skill
splinter skill
transferable skill
Related terms: word: omnicompetence
word: skilled
word: forte