Sketchy

How to spell sketchy

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sketchy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sketchy mean?

1. adjectiveLacking detail or completeness; giving only a rough or partial picture.
2. adjectiveInformally, seeming dishonest, unsafe, or not to be trusted.

Sketchy in a sentence

• The report was too sketchy to base any decision on.

• The deal felt sketchy, so she walked away from it.

• His memory of that evening was sketchy at best.

• That part of town gets a bit sketchy after dark.

Where does sketchy come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

The base word sketch came into English in the 1600s from the Dutch schets, meaning a rough draught or outline, which the Dutch had borrowed from the Italian schizzo, a quick splash or rough drawing. The Italian word traces back to the Latin schedium, meaning something composed on the spur of the moment, and ultimately to the Greek skhedios, meaning 'done off-hand' or 'improvised'. Adding the native English adjective ending -y produced sketchy, first meaning 'having the rough, unfinished quality of a sketch', and so 'slight, incomplete, lacking detail'. The familiar modern slang sense of 'dubious or untrustworthy' grew out of this in the twentieth century, the idea being that a sketchy thing is only roughly drawn and therefore not to be relied upon. The single -tch- followed by a plain -y is the spelling to watch, since the word keeps the full sketch base before the suffix.

How the word is built

• sketch (a rough drawing or outline)
• -y (adjective suffix: having the quality of)