skipper n.1

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]

Middle English ship, "seagoing vessel," especially a large one, from Old English scip "ship, boat, vessel of considerable size adapted to navigation," from Proto-Germanic *skipa- (source also of Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Gothic skip, Danish skib, Swedish skepp, Middle Dutch scip, Dutch schip, Old High German skif, German Schiff). Watkins calls this a "Germanic noun of obscure origin." OED says "the ultimate etymology is uncertain." Traditionally since Pokorny it is derived from PIE root *skei- "to cut, split," perhaps on the notion of a tree cut out or hollowed out, but the semantic connection is unclear. Boutkan gives it "No certain IE etymology."

Now a vessel of considerable size; the Old English word was used for small craft as well, and definitions changed over time; in 19c., a ship was distinguished from a boat in having a bowsprit and three masts, each with a lower, top, and topgallant mast.

French esquif, Italian schifo are Germanic loan-words. By 1590s as the name of a southern constellation (Argo Navis). When personified, ships usually were feminine at least from late 14c., but in 17c.-18c. masculine pronouns became more common, perhaps by influence of the use of man in names such as man-of-war, Dutchman, merchantman. In such combinations, man in the sense of "a ship" is attested from late 15c.

Phrase ships that pass in the night is from Longfellow's poem "Elizabeth" in "Tales of a Wayside Inn" (1863). Expression when (one's) ship comes in "when one's affairs become prosperous" is attested by 1851. The figurative use of nautical tight ship (the notion may be one in which ropes, etc., are tightly stowed) is attested by 1965; compare shipshape.

The model ship inside a bottle with a neck much narrower than the ship is attested by 1920. Ship of fools is in the title of the 1509 translation of Brant's Narrenschiff (1494).

"captain," short for skipper (n.1), by 1830, originally in sports jargon (curling).