- skeleton (n.)
- 1570s, from Modern Latin sceleton "bones, bony framework of the body," from Greek skeleton soma "dried-up body, mummy," from neuter of skeletos "dried-up," from skellein "dry up," from PIE root *skele- "to parch, wither" (cf. Greek skleros "hard"). The Greek word was borrowed in Late Latin (sceletus), hence French squelette, Spanish esqueleto, Italian scheletro. The meaning "bare outline" is first recorded c.1600; hence skeleton crew (1778), skeleton key, etc. Phrase skeleton in the closet "source of secret shame to a person or family" popularized 1845 by Thackeray, though he likely didn't coin it.