skinflint (n.)

Old English flint "flint; a type of rock noted for hardness and for giving off sparks when struck," from Proto-Germanic *flintaz (source also of Middle Dutch vlint, Old High German flins, Danish flint), formerly said to be from a PIE root *(s)plei- "to splice, split" (source also of Greek plinthos "brick, tile," Old Irish slind "brick"). The transferred senses (in reference to hardness, etc.) were in Old English.

late 14c., skinnen, "to remove the skin from" (originally in reference to circumcision), from skin (n.). As "to have (a particular kind of) skin" from c. 1400. As "provide with skin, cover as with skin," 1540s.

In 19c. U.S. colloquial use, "to strip of valuable possessions, fleece, plunder;" hence skin-game (1868), one in which one player has no chance against the others (as with a stacked deck), the type of con game played in a skin-house ("gambling house;" the same phrase, for "theater featuring nude women" is attested by 1972). Skin the cat in gymnastics is from 1845. Related: Skinned; skinning.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cut." It forms all or part of: bisect; dissect; hacksaw; insect; intersect; resect; saw (n.1) "cutting tool;" Saxon; scythe; secant; secateurs; sect; section; sector; sedge; segment; skin; skinflint; skinny; transect.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Hittite shakk- "to know, pay attention to;" Latin secare "to cut," sectio "a cutting, cutting off, division;" Old Church Slavonic seko, sešti "to cut," sečivo "ax, hatchet," Russian seč' "to cut to pieces;" Lithuanian įsėkti "to engrave, carve;" Albanian šate "mattock;" Old Saxon segasna, Old English sigðe "scythe;" Old English secg "sword," seax "knife, short sword;" Old Irish doescim "I cut."