Outskirts

How to spell outskirts

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce outskirts

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does outskirts mean?

1. nounThe outer parts or fringes of a town or city, away from the centre.

Outskirts in a sentence

• The new warehouse sits on the outskirts of the city, near the motorway.

• Rents are cheaper on the outskirts than in the busy centre.

Where does outskirts come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word joins the everyday adverb 'out', meaning beyond or on the outer side, to 'skirt', and it is the 'skirt' part that carries the surprise. Skirt came into English from the Old Norse word skyrta, which meant a shirt or shift, the very same root that also gave English its own word 'shirt'; the two are essentially the same garment seen through two different tongues. Over time skirt drifted from the garment itself to the idea of its lower border or hem, and from there to any edge or margin, which is why we can 'skirt around' a problem or a town. By the late 1500s writers were using 'outskirts' for the outer borders or fringes of a place, and the plural form took hold as the settled spelling. The trap for the modern writer is hearing a single smooth word and forgetting the buried 's' at the join, since 'outskirts' is really 'out' plus 'skirts'.

How the word is built

• out- (outer, beyond)
• skirt (border, edge, from Old Norse skyrta)
• -s (plural)