Etymograph

English

skein

Skein comes from Middle English skaine ‘quantity of string, thread, etc., wound on a…’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *skend- ‘to jump up, ascend’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skend-1‘to jump up, ascend’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400escaigne1
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500skaine1‘quantity of string, thread, etc., wound on a reel’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1517skein1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English skein
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1517, John Skelton: “Some for very nede / Layde downe a skeyne…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skend-Wiktionary, English skein‘to jump up, ascend’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400escaigneWiktionary, English skein
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500skaineWiktionary, English skein‘quantity of string, thread, etc., wound on a reel’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1517skeinWiktionary, English skein. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1517, John Skelton: “Some for very nede / Layde downe a skeyne…”

The story

The noun is derived from Middle English skaine, skayne (‘quantity of string, thread, etc., wound on a reel; the string, thread, etc., so wound’), from Old French escaigne (modern French écagne, écaigne (Picardy)); further etymology uncertain, probably from Proto-Celtic, from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (‘to split off’).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *skend- ‘to jump up, ascend’

scale, scan, descend, ascension, slander, escalator, scala, echelon, ascendant, 13 more

Another origin of skein

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skey-‘to dissect’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skinō‘piece’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skinu‘bar’reconstructed
  4. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*skinareconstructed
  5. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500schene
  6. Dutchc. 1500–presentscheen‘strip of metal or wood’
  7. Englishtodayskein

Today it means

noun A quantity of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a reel then removed and loosely knotted into an oblong shape; a skein of cotton is formed by eighty turns of thread around a reel with a fifty-four inch diameter.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “skein”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *skend- / skein

Shirt and support for this word