Skynner

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A craftsman who dresses, cures or sells the hides and furs of animals, an archaic form of skinner
2. An old-fashioned term for a tradesman who works with or sells animal pelts and skins
3. A person in earlier times who prepared hides and skins for leather, fur and related goods

Etymology: The word is built from the verb "to skin," meaning to strip the hide from an animal, with the agent suffix "-er" added to name the person who does the job. A skinner was therefore someone who flayed animals or prepared their pelts, a trade that once mattered a great deal wherever leather and fur were needed. The same pattern produces many older trade names, such as "tanner" and "fuller." The spelling "skynner" is an older form of the same word, and it survives today mainly as a surname, usually traceable to an ancestor who worked with hides.