skillyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[skill 词源字典]
skill: [12] Skill etymologically denotes not a physical accomplishment, but the mental capacity to make ‘distinctions’. It was borrowed from Old Norse skil ‘distinction, discernment, knowledge’, whose relatives include Dutch geschil ‘difference’, and which goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *skel- ‘divide, separate’ (source also of English scale, shell, shield, etc). The modern English sense emerged in the 13th century.
=> scale, shell, shield[skill etymology, skill origin, 英语词源]
skill (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
late 12c., "power of discernment," from Old Norse skil "distinction, ability to make out, discernment, adjustment," related to skilja (v.) "to separate; discern, understand," from Proto-Germanic *skaljo- "divide, separate" (cognates: Swedish skäl "reason," Danish skjel "a separation, boundary, limit," Middle Low German schillen "to differ," Middle Low German, Middle Dutch schele "separation, discrimination;" see shell (n.)). Sense of "ability, cleverness" first recorded early 13c.