Possibly from Middle Low German schink, schinke, schenke (“leg; shank; shin bone; ham”), from Old Saxon skinka, from Proto-West Germanic *skinkō (“shank; thigh; that which is bent”), from Proto-Germanic *skinkô, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (“to limp; to be crooked, slant”).
The word is cognate with Danish skinke (“ham”), Middle Dutch schenke, schinke (“shin; hough; ham”), Icelandic skinka (“ham”), Norwegian skinke (“ham”), Old English ġesċincio, ġesċinco (“kidney fat”), Old High German skinka, skinko (“shank; shin bone”) (Middle High German schinke (“shank; shin bone; ham”), modern German Schinken (“ham; pork from the hindquarters”)), Old Saxon skinka (“ham”), Old Swedish skinke (modern Swedish skinka (“ham”)).
Meanings
(Northern-England, Scotland) A shin of beef.
lean sirloin, skink and pot-roast
(Scotland, obsolete) A soup or pottage made from a boiled shin of beef.
For there are in the Flesh , Bones , Skinnes , organs , and the severall limbes of the living body : such spirits as are in the Flesh , Bone , and Skinke , beeing separated 1623, Francis Bacon, Historia Vitae et Mortis:
(Scotland, broadly) Usually preceded by a descriptive word: a soup or pottage made using other ingredients.
From Middle English skinken, skynken, skenken, from Middle Dutch scinken, scenken, schenken and/or Old Norse skenkja, both from Proto-Germanic *skankijaną. Cognate with German schenken (“to give as a present”), Dutch schenken (“to pour, give as a present”). See also the inherited doublet shink.
From Middle English skinken, skynken, skenken, from Middle Dutch scinken, scenken, schenken and/or Old Norse skenkja, both from Proto-Germanic *skankijaną. Cognate with German schenken (“to give as a present”), Dutch schenken (“to pour, give as a present”). See also the inherited doublet shink.
Meanings
(Scotland, ambitransitive) To serve (a drink).
Such wine as Ganymede doth skink to Jove, / When he invites the gods to feast with him / On Juno's wedding-day. 1640 November 20 (date licensed, Gregorian calendar; published 1652), James Shirley, “The Imposture”, in William Gifford, Alexander Dyce, editors, The Dramatic Works and Poems of James Shirley, […], volume V, London: John Murray, […], published 1833, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 246:
[W]hile he would spit beyond the table, he all-to-bespawleth him who skinketh at the feast. 1900, Theophrastus, “Of Foulness”, in [anonymous], transl., edited by David J[osiah] Brewer, Edward A. Allen, and William Schuyler, The World’s Best Essays from the Earliest Period to the Present Time […], royal edition, volume X, St. Louis, Mo.: Ferd[inand] P. Kaiser, →OCLC, page 3769:
(Northern-England, Scotland, obsolete, transitive) To give (something) as a present.