n.
Gaw, Pe skylle; Pe pl skylleʒ; Cl scylle; WA skill
'reason, judgement; (that which is) reasonable; meaning; intention, purpose'
(Modern English skill)cp. OIcel skil (pl.) ‘distinction, discernment (etc.)’ < PGmc *skeli- (cp. OFris skil), from the stem of the verb *skeljan- (cp. OIcel skilja ‘to divide’, OFris skilla ‘to quarrel’, MLG schillen ‘to differ’). Late OE -scylian (āscylian, āscilian, tōscylian ‘to divide’), ME schillen (v.) likely represent native cognates, though some have attempted to derive them from ON with initial sound substitution (Hofmann §352, Peters 95, EPNE s.v. skil).
PGmc Ancestor
*skeli-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
skil (pl.) ‘distinction, discernment (etc.)’
(ONP skil (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far skil, Icel skil, Norw skil, Dan skel, Dan dial skil, OSw skil, Sw skäl
OE Cognate
Late -scylian (āscylian, āscilian, tōscylian ‘to divide’)
Phonological and morphological markers
absence of palatalization of */sk/
Summary category
A1a
Common throughout ME (from Orrm). On the possibility of late OE <scylget> as an earlier form of the same loan, see EPNE s.v. skil.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 1296, 1509; Pe 54, 312, 674; Cl 151, 569, 709 etc.; WA 1575
PS emend Gaw MS 1296 <skyl> to *skylle, presumably metri causa.