Where does “skein” come from?
Skein comes from Middle English skeyne, from Old French escaigne, of unknown ultimate origin.
skein (English): A quantity of yarn, thread, or the like, put up...
Definitions
- A quantity of yarn, thread, or the like, put up...
Ancestry of “skein”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Dutch | scheen | shin; strip of wood or metal |
| 2 | Dutch | scheenbeen | A tibia; A shin, the front of a vertebrate leg... |
| 3 | Dutch | been | leg, limb of a person, horse and certain... |
| 4 | Middle Dutch | bêen | — |
| 5 | Old Dutch | bēn | — |
| 6 | Proto-West Germanic | bain | leg; bone |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | bainą | leg; bone |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰeyh₂- | to fear, be afraid; to strike, hit; to hew, cut |
Words derived from “skein”