sky
pronunciation
How to pronounce sky in British English:
UK [skaɪ]
How to pronounce sky in American English:
US [skaɪ]
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- Noun:
- the atmosphere and outer space as viewed from the earth
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- Verb:
- throw or toss with a light motion
Word Origin
- sky
- sky: [13] Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors called the sky heofon ‘heaven’. Not until the early Middle English period did heaven begin to be pushed aside by sky, a borrowing from Old Norse ský ‘cloud’. This came ultimately from an Indo- European base meaning ‘cover’, which also produced Latin obscūrus, source of English obscure [14]. (For a while English continued to use sky for ‘cloud’ as well as for ‘sky’: the medieval Scots poet William Dunbar wrote, ‘When sable all the heaven arrays with misty vapours, clouds, and skies’.)=> obscure
- sky (n.)
- c. 1200, "a cloud," from Old Norse sky "cloud," from Proto-Germanic *skeujam "cloud, cloud cover" (cognates: Old English sceo, Old Saxon scio "cloud, region of the clouds, sky;" Old High German scuwo, Old English scua, Old Norse skuggi "shadow;" Gothic skuggwa "mirror"), from PIE root *(s)keu- "to cover, conceal" (see hide (n.1)). Meaning "upper regions of the air" is attested from c. 1300; replaced native heofon in this sense (see heaven). In Middle English, the word can still mean both "cloud" and "heaven," as still in the skies, originally "the clouds." Sky-high is from 1812; phrase the sky's the limit is attested from 1908. Sky-dive first recorded 1965; sky-writing is from 1922.
- sky (v.)
- "to raise or throw toward the skies," 1802, from sky (n.).
Example
- 1. Baobab trees lit up against the dark african sky .
- 2. You might wonder which is sky , which is ground ?
- 3. The bright sun is surrounded by a black sky .
- 4. The effect is like a big alien flying across the sky .
- 5. What 's that bright object in the sky ?