Skinners

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of person who prepares animal hides for use or sale
2. A craftsman skilled in fashioning leather goods from processed pelts
3. Referring to certain species of fish or other organisms that have a distinctive shedding or molting process

Etymology: The plural "skinners" is simply the plural of "skinner," so the history belongs to the singular. "Skinner" comes from Middle English "skynner," "skinner," "skynnere," and "schynnere," which was formed from "skin" with the suffix "-er," meaning a person who works with skins. The word was therefore first a trade name for someone who prepared, dressed, or sold animal hides, much like a tanner or fellmonger. The same word appears in several neighbouring languages, including Old Norse "skinnari," Old Swedish "skinnare," and Middle Low German "schinder" and "schinner," all meaning "skinner." This shared stock suggests the trade name was common across the North Sea region, where the word was used long before the sense of an animal that sheds its skin developed in English.

Synonyms: tanners, furriers