Etymograph

English

skull

Skull may come from Old Norse skalli ‘bald head, skull’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- ‘to cut’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kelH-1‘to cut’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skallô2‘skull, cranium’uncertain
  3. Proto-Norsec. 200–800 CE*skalo2transliteratedrunes *ᛋᚲᚨᛚᛟuncertain
  4. Old Norsec. 800–1350skalli1‘bald head, skull’uncertain
  5. Old Norsec. 800–1350*skulli3uncertain
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sculle1
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1850skull1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English skull
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old Norse skalli
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Middle English sculle
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1850, [Alfred, Prologue: “Thine are these orbs of light and shade; ⁠Thou…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kelH-Wiktionary, English skull‘to cut’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skallôWiktionary, Old Norse skalli‘skull, cranium’uncertain
  3. Proto-Norsec. 200–800 CE*skaloWiktionary, Old Norse skallitransliteratedrunes *ᛋᚲᚨᛚᛟuncertain
  4. Old Norsec. 800–1350skalliWiktionary, English skull‘bald head, skull’uncertain
  5. Old Norsec. 800–1350*skulliWiktionary, Middle English sculleuncertain
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sculleWiktionary, English skull
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1850skullWiktionary, English skull. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1850, [Alfred, Prologue: “Thine are these orbs of light and shade; ⁠Thou…”

The story

From Middle English sculle, scolle (also schulle, scholle), probably from a dialectal form of Old Norse skalli (‘bald head, skull’), itself probably related to Old English sċealu (‘husk’), to Proto-Norse *ᛋᚲᚨᛚᛟ (*skalo), from Proto-Germanic *skallô; compare Finnish kallo. Possibly related to Latin celsus (‘lofty, high, tall’), collis (‘hill’). Also related to Old Norse skǫllóttr, Icelandic sköllóttur, Old Swedish skallotter, Swedish skallig, Danish skaldet, Norwegian skallet (‘bald’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- ‘to cut’

half, shield, shell, skill, shale, shilling, shoal, halter, halve, schilling, shelve, hapa, schelling, 14 more

through Middle English sculle

scull

Today it means

noun The main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “skull”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Old Norse skalli, Middle English sculle. 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 *(s)kelH- / skull

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