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skink

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skink¹

  • /skɪŋk/ US, UK

Rhymes with -ɪŋk

Where it comes from

Possibly from Middle Low German schink, schinke, schenke (“leg; shank; shin bone; ham”), from Old Saxon skinka, from Proto-West Germanic *skinkō (“shank; thigh; that which is bent”), from Proto-Germanic *skinkô, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (“to limp; to be crooked, slant”).

The word is cognate with Danish skinke (“ham”), Middle Dutch schenke, schinke (“shin; hough; ham”), Icelandic skinka (“ham”), Norwegian skinke (“ham”), Old English ġesċincio, ġesċinco (“kidney fat”), Old High German skinka, skinko (“shank; shin bone”) (Middle High German schinke (“shank; shin bone; ham”), modern German Schinken (“ham; pork from the hindquarters”)), Old Saxon skinka (“ham”), Old Swedish skinke (modern Swedish skinka (“ham”)).

noun skinks

  1. Northern England, Scotland A shin of beef. lean sirloin, skink and pot-roast
  2. Scotland, obsolete A soup or pottage made from a boiled shin of beef. For there are in the Flesh , Bones , Skinnes , organs , and the severall limbes of the living body : such spirits as are in the Flesh , Bone , and Skinke , beeing separated
  3. Scotland, broadly Usually preceded by a descriptive word: a soup or pottage made using other ingredients. Cullen skink

skink²

  • /skɪŋk/ US, UK

Rhymes with -ɪŋk

Where it comes from

From Middle French scinc, from Latin scincus, from Ancient Greek σκίγγος (skíngos), σκίγκος (skínkos).

noun skinks

  1. A lizard of the family Scincidae, having small or reduced limbs or none at all and long tails that are regenerated when shed; a sandfish.

skink³

  • /skɪŋk/ US, UK

Rhymes with -ɪŋk

Where it comes from

From Middle English skinken, skynken, skenken, from Middle Dutch scinken, scenken, schenken and/or Old Norse skenkja, both from Proto-Germanic *skankijaną. Cognate with German schenken (“to give as a present”), Dutch schenken (“to pour, give as a present”). See also the inherited doublet shink.

verb skinks · skinking · skinked

  1. Scotland, ambitransitive To serve (a drink). Such wine as Ganymede doth skink to Jove, / When he invites the gods to feast with him / On Juno's wedding-day.
  2. Northern England, Scotland, obsolete, transitive To give (something) as a present.

noun skinks

  1. obsolete A drink.

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