Skater

How to spell skater

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce skater

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does skater mean?

1. nounA person who moves on ice skates, roller skates, or a skateboard.

Skater in a sentence

• The figure skater landed a clean triple jump.

• Every skater at the rink wore a helmet for safety.

Where does skater come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

The word descends from 'skate', which English borrowed in the seventeenth century from the Dutch 'schaats', a kind of bladed footwear for gliding over ice. The Dutch word itself came from the Old French 'eschasse', meaning 'stilt' or 'leg support', tracing back to a Frankish root for a long wooden pole. English speakers misread the singular 'schaats' as a plural and trimmed it to 'skate', a quirk that fixed the modern spelling. Adding the agent suffix '-er' gave us 'skater', meaning one who skates. The same noun later widened from ice to roller skates and to the wheeled skateboard, so today a skater might glide on a frozen pond or grind a concrete ramp.

How the word is built

• skat (from skate, the bladed footwear or board)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)