skeleton
pronunciation
How to pronounce skeleton in British English:
UK [ˈskelɪtn]
How to pronounce skeleton in American English:
US [ˈskelɪtn]
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- Noun:
- something reduced to its minimal form
- a scandal that is kept secret
- the hard structure (bones and cartilages) that provides a frame for the body of an animal
- the internal supporting structure that gives an artifact its shape
Word Origin
- skeleton
- skeleton: [16] A skeleton is etymologically a ‘dried-up’ or ‘withered’ body. The word comes via modern Latin from Greek skeletón, short for sóma skeletón ‘dried-up body’. The adjective skeletós was derived from skéllein ‘dry up, wither’, and was related to sklērós ‘dry, hard’, from which English gets sclerosis [14].=> sclerosis
- skeleton (n.)
- 1570s, from Modern Latin sceleton "bones, bony framework of the body," from Greek skeleton soma "dried-up body, mummy, skeleton," from neuter of skeletos "dried-up" (also, as a noun, "dried body, mummy"), from skellein "dry up, make dry, parch," from PIE root *skele- "to parch, wither" (see sclero-). Skelton was an early variant form. The noun use of Greek skeletos passed into Late Latin (sceletus), hence French squelette and rare English skelet (1560s), 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" is from 1812.
Example
- 1. Yet the details of her skeleton proclaim her human affinity .
- 2. The tiny bones of the unborn baby lay between the skeleton 's hips .
- 3. However , parts of the skeleton not found in 1940 may still remain at the site .
- 4. Calcium intake is most important in adolescence , when the skeleton is forming .
- 5. The skeleton was divided and sold in two parts , one of which had dropped out of sight .