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Origin and history of skewed

skewed(adj.1)

1610s, "set obliquely or aslant," past-participle adjective from skew (v.). In the sense of "distorted, shifted, turned aside" it is by 1895.

skewed(adj.2)

"skewbald, of mixed colors," early 15c., skued, skeued, a word of uncertain origin. It is said to be not from skew (v.), but Klein's sources say it is and Middle English Compendium offers that as a possibility; OED suggests it is perhaps from Old French escu "shield," but also notes a close resemblance in form and sense with Icelandic skjottr, "the history of which is equally obscure." Watkins says it is Scandinavian and akin to Old Norse sky "cloud" on the resemblance of the markings to cloud cover.

also from early 15c.

Entries linking to skewed

skew(v.)

c. 1400, "turn aside, take an oblique course, run obliquely or at an angle," also "escape," intransitive senses now archaic or obsolete, from Old North French eskiuer "shy away from, avoid," Old French eschiver (see eschew; also compare shy (adj.)).

The transitive sense of "turn (something) aside, give oblique direction to" is attested from 1570s. The meaning "depict unfairly" is recorded by 1872, on notion of being "give oblique direction to," hence "to distort, to make slant"(compare bias, also an image of obliqueness). The statistical sense dates from 1929. Related: Skewed; skewing.

The adjectival meaning "slanting, turned to one side" is recorded from c. 1600, from the verb; the noun meaning "a slant, a deviation" is attested by 1680s.

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    Trends of skewed

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    align
    early 15c., "to copulate" (of wolves, dogs), literally "to range (things) in a line," from Old French alignier "set, lay in line" (Modern French aligner), from à "to" (see ad-) + lignier "to line," from Latin lineare "reduce to a straight line," from linea (see line (n.)). Transi
    reorient
    also re-orient, 1897, transitive, "give a new direction to;" 1937, intransitive, "adjust (to), come to terms with, adopt a new direction;" from re- "back, again" + orient (v.) or perhaps a back-formation from reorientation. Related: Reoriented; reorienting. Alternative reorientat
    breach
    Old English bryce "a fracture, act of breaking," from Proto-Germanic *brukiz (source also of Old Frisian breke "a burst, crack, demolition (of a house)," Old Saxon bruki, Old High German bruh, Middle Dutch broke), a noun from *brekanan (source of Old English  brecan "to shat
    mature
    c. 1400, maturen, "encourage suppuration;" mid-15c., of plants, "cause to ripen, bring to maturity," from Latin mātūrare "to ripen, bring to maturity," from mātūrus "ripe, timely, early," related to māne "early, of the morning," from PIE *meh-tu- "ripeness." De Vaan writes that "
    oligarchy
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    muff
    1590s, "covering into which both hands may be thrust to keep them warm," from Dutch mof "a muff," shortened from Middle Dutch moffel "mitten, muff," from  French moufle "mitten," from Old French mofle "thick glove, large mitten, handcuffs" (9c.), from Medieval Latin muffula
    week
    Old English wucu, wice, etc., from Proto-Germanic *wikō(n)- (source also of Old Norse vika, Old Frisian wike, Middle Dutch weke, Old High German wecha, German woche), probably originally with the sense of "a turning" or "succession" (compare Gothic wikon "in the course of," Old N
    resolution
    late 14c., resolucioun, "a breaking or reducing into parts; process of breaking up, dissolution," from Old French resolution (14c.) and directly from Latin resolutionem (nominative resolutio) "process of reducing things into simpler forms," noun of action from past-participle ste
    twitterpated
    1942, apparently first attested in the Walt Disney movie "Bambi" (there also was a song by that name but it was not in the studio release of the film), a past-participle adjective formed from twitter in the "tremulous excitement" noun sense (1670s) + pate (n.2) "head" (compare fl
    about
    Middle English aboute, from Old English abutan (adv., prep.), earlier onbutan "on the outside of; around the circumference of, enveloping; in the vicinity of, near; hither and thither, from place to place," also "with a rotating or spinning motion," in late Old English "near in t

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