skeet
/skiːt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.70 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "THE ARTICLE on the sport of Skeet that appeared in the June issue of WILD LIFE described the layout of the Skeet field, installation of the traps, and the rules and regulations for Skeet shooting."
- "The longer I shoot skeet the more convinced I am that it is the greatest game ever devised for the users of shotguns. Skeet has brought home to shooters the need of properly fitting guns and the benefit of straighter stocks"
- "To Mrs. Gertrude Hurlbutt, Montana rancher’s wife, went a $100 prize in 1926 from National Sportsman and Hunting and Fishing magazines for christening their newly sponsored shotgun sport “skeet” – Scandinavian derivation, meaning “to shoot.”"
- "Skeet started informally in 1920 as off-season practice for bird hunting, so it needed few rules. It became more formally organized in 1926 when the National Skeet Shooting Association (NSSA) was formed."
- "A small part at least of the language associated with younger speakers originates in local words that appear to have undergone local meaning change. A good example is skeet. This term may be related to skite which in neighbouring Prince Edward Island can mean a 'young scoundrel' (Pratt 1988), or to the American terms skeester/skeeter, definied by the Dictionary of American Regional English (Cassidy and Hall 1985) as 'rascal, rogue'. If older NLE speakers know this word at all, they would probably use it in this sense. Among younger speakers, however, it has much the same meaning as such British slang terms as chav, charver or scally, or even the North American white trash."
- "‘Aoow! You skeeted the water right in my ear. It’s busted my eardrum. I can’t even hear.’ ‘Gimme here. Let me skeet some.’"
Etymology
Pseudo-archaic alteration of shoot, perhaps with reference to Old Norse skjóta; compare Scots skite (“to dart, to shoot”). The name for a form of trapshooting is attested from the 1920s, see quotations below. Senses related to ejaculation of semen likely derive from this, but compare also squirt, skite, or scoot. The word skeet is attested in reference to working class persons in US English from the 19th century, or the Newfoundland and Labrador regionalism may derive from other terms such as skite or skeeter; see quotation below.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *(s)kewd-, skeið
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Sports.