Old English tun "enclosure, garden, field, yard; farm, manor; homestead, dwelling house, mansion;" later "group of houses, village, farm," from Proto-Germanic *tunaz, *tunan "fortified place" (source also of Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old Frisian tun "fence, hedge," Middle Dutch tuun "fence," Dutch tuin "garden," Old High German zun, German Zaun "fence, hedge"), an early borrowing from Celtic *dunon "hill, hill-fort" (source also of Old Irish dun, Welsh din "fortress, fortified place, camp," dinas "city," Gaulish-Latin -dunum in place names), from PIE *dhu-no- "enclosed, fortified place, hill-fort," from root *dheue- "to close, finish, come full circle" (see down (n.2)).
Meaning "inhabited place larger than a village" (mid-12c.) arose after the Norman conquest from the use of this word to correspond to French ville. The modern word is partially a generic term, applicable to cities of great size as well as places intermediate between a city and a village; such use is unusual, the only parallel is perhaps Latin oppidium, which occasionally was applied even to Rome or Athens (each of which was more properly an urbs).
First record of town hall is from late 15c. Town ball, version of baseball, is recorded from 1852. Town car (1907) originally was a motor car with an enclosed passenger compartment and open driver's seat. On the town "living the high life" is from 1712. Go to town "do (something) energetically" is first recorded 1933. Man about town "one constantly seen at public and private functions" is attested from 1734.
c. 1300, skippen, "spring lightly; go with a leap or bound; take light, dancing steps," also "jump over," probably from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse skopa "to take a run," from Proto-Germanic *skupan (source also of Old Swedish skuppa, dialectal Swedish skimpa, skopa "to skip, leap"). Related: Skipped; skipping.
The meaning "omit intervening parts (in reading or narrating), read over" is recorded from late 14c. Command skip it "drop the topic, leave off talking about it" is by 1934.
The meaning "to bounce" is from mid-15c.; the sense of "cause to skip or bound," especially of a thrown thing, as a flat stone across water, etc. is from 1680s.
It is attested by mid-14c. as "to run, go, rush, flee," also "to make off, hasten away. To skip out "run out, flee" is by late 14c. (in Middle English it also meant "leap up, spring forth"). The modern transitive meaning "fail to attend" is attested by 1905, perhaps ultimately from skip school (attested by 1810).
The custom of skipping rope, "jumping a rope slackly held at both ends and in steady motion over one's head" has been traced to 17c.; it was commonly done by boys as well as girls but by late 19c. was described as "a common amusement of young girls." [Century Dictionary, 1895]
early 15c.,skippe, "a leap, a jump, a spring, a bound," from skip (v.). The meaning "a passing over or disregarding" is from 1650s.
"captain," short for skipper (n.1), by 1830, originally in sports jargon (curling).
"to leap, skip, prance," 1580s, apparently short for obsolete capriole "to leap, skip," which is probably from Italian capriolare "jump in the air" (see cab). Related: Capered; capering.
1758, originally in a military sense, "to subject to ricochet fire," from French ricochet (n.) "the skipping of a shot, or of a flat stone on water" (see ricochet (n.)). Of the thrown object, "to skip, rebound, bound by touching a flat surface and glancing off," by 1828. Related: Ricochetted; ricochetting. A native dialect word for "throw thin, flat stones so that they skip over the surface of water" is scud (1874).
