*skel- (1)

also *kel-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cut."

It forms all or part of: coulter; cutlass; half; halve; scale (n.1) "skin plates on fish or snakes;" scale (n.2) "weighing instrument;" scalene; scallop; scalp; scalpel; school (n.2) "group of fish;" sculpture; shale; sheldrake; shelf; shell; shield; shoal (n.2) "large number;" skoal; skill.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin culter "knife," scalpere "to cut, scrape;" Old Church Slavonic skolika "mussel, shell," Russian skala "rind, bark," Lithuanian skelti "split," Old English scell "shell," scalu "drinking cup, bowl, scale of a balance."

Entries linking to *skel-

coulter (n.)

also colter, "iron blade or sharp-edged wheel attached to the beam of a plow to cut the ground," Old English culter, from Latin culter "a knife, iron blade in a plowshare," from PIE root *skel- (1) "to cut." As a surname (13c.), probably from Coulter in Lancashire.

cutlass (n.)

"short sword or large knife with a flat, wide, slightly curved blade," used for cutting more than thrusting, 1590s, from French coutelas (16c.), which is probably from Italian coltellaccio "large knife," with augmentative suffix -accio + coltello "knife," from Latin cultellus "small knife," diminutive of culter "knife, plowshare," from PIE *kel-tro-, suffixed form of root *skel- (1) "to cut." Not related to cut.

See all related words (21) >

More to Explore

half

Old English half, halb (Mercian), healf (W. Saxon) "side, part," not necessarily of equal division (original sense preserved in behalf), from Proto-Germanic *halba- "something divided" (source also of Old Saxon halba, Old Norse halfr, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch half, German halb,

scale

[one of the skin plates on fish or snakes] c. 1300, from Old French escale "cup, scale, shell pod, husk" (12c., Modern French écale), from Frankish *skala or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *skæla "to split, divide" (source also of Dutch schaal "a scale, husk," Ol

scalene

"having unequal sides," in mathematics, 1680s, from Late Latin scalenus, from Greek skalēnos "craggy, rough; uneven, unequal," of numbers, "odd," of cones, "slant;" as a noun, "triangle with unequal sides" (trigōnon skalēnon). This is from skallein "to dig, stir up, hoe" (c

scoliosis

1706, medical Latin, from Latinized form of Greek skoliosis "crookedness," from skolios "bent, curved," from PIE root *skel...

school

Old Saxon scola "troop, multitude," West Frisian skoal), perhaps with a literal sense of "division," and from PIE root *skel...

scalp

exact sense cognates are wanting) related to Old Norse skalli "a bald head," skalpr "sheath, scabbard," from PIE root *skel...

shall

These Germanic words are reconstructed (Watkins, Pokorny) to be from a PIE root *skel- (2) "to be under an obligation."...

balance

early 13c., "scales, apparatus for weighing by comparison of mass," from Old French balance "balance, scales for weighing" (12c.), also in figurative sense; from Medieval Latin bilancia, from Late Latin bilanx, from Latin (libra) bilanx "(scale) having two pans," possibly from La

paraphernalia

1650s, in law, "a woman's property besides her dowry," from Medieval Latin paraphernalia (short for paraphernalia bona "paraphernal goods"), neuter plural of paraphernalis (adj.), from Late Latin parapherna, in Roman law "a woman's property besides her dowry," from Greek parapher

intelligence

late 14c., "the highest faculty of the mind, capacity for comprehending general truths;" c. 1400, "faculty of understanding, comprehension," from Old French intelligence (12c.) and directly from Latin intelligentia, intellegentia "understanding, knowledge, power of discerning; ar

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updated on September 28, 2017

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