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Added 8 October 2026

skirt

/skɜːt/ noun

In Latin: castula Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about skirt at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Cloth covering that forms the part of a garment below the waist.
A garment hanging from the waist; worn mainly by girls and women.
(Fungi) a remnant of the partial veil that in mature mushrooms surrounds the stem like a collar.

verb

Avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues).
He dodged the issue
Pass around or about; move along the border.
The boat skirted the coast
Form the edge of.

Origin

From Middle English scyrt, skirt, skyrte, skyrthe, skyrtte, from Old Norse skyrta, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ (“apron; skirt”), from *skurtaz (“short; deficient”), from *skertaną (“to cut off”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off; to divide”). Doublet of shirt. Cognate with Yola shoorth, skoorth (“shirt”), North Frisian Sjürt (“shirt”), Saterland Frisian Schoarte (“apron”), Dutch schort (“apron”), German Schürze (“apron”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk skjorte (“shirt”), Faroese skjúrta (“shirt”), Icelandic skyrta (“shirt”), Swedish skjorta (“shirt”), Irish sciorta (“skirt; strip”), Welsh sgert (“skirt”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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