The Skinny on Skin.

For those of you who also follow the Fairy Tale of the Month portion of my blog, you will have read the bit of dialogue where Melissa uses the cliché gets under your skin.

While writers should avoid clichés, these are certainly useful in dialogue because that is the way people speak. I certainly use clichés in my day-to-day conversations. Not infrequently, I say to myself—and sometimes out loud—“Where does that come from?”

There are a good handful of clichés involving the word “skin.” I dedicate this blog to gets under your skin, thin-skinned, thick-skinned, skinflint, skin of one’s teeth, what’s the skinny, and skin the cat.

Gets under your skin: Origin is probably the early 20^th century. In my hasty research for this blog, it appears this does not refer to any medical procedure but more likely to an itch or bug bite, the point being an irritation. More nuanced, it can be an obsession. Cole Porter used this notion in his 1936 song I’ve Got You Under My Skin. As in most clichés, the expression is meant metaphorically.

Thin-skinned: 17^th century. It describes people who are easily offended, emotionally sensitive, and quick to take things personally. Over time, it came to be applied most often to political and public figures. No one less than Samuel Johnson has used the term.

Thick-skinned: 19^th century. I find this a surprisingly late arrival, being the opposite of thin-skinned, but the origin is different. The allusion is to thick-skinned animals, such as elephants and rhinoceroses, which are pachyderms, a word of Greek origin; pachys = thick, and derma = skin. (Are there any thin-skinned animals?)

The term, of course, refers to someone insensitive to criticism or emotions.

Skinflint: 17^th century again. Used to describe a person of obsessive thrift. Its progenitor was to skin a flint, an obvious absurdity, not unlike squeezing water from a stone. By the 19^th century, skinflint became a literary character type—like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol—with the implications of moral judgement and mean-spiritedness.

By the skin of one’s teeth: Biblical, Book of Job. This surprised me. Not unlike skinflint in its use of something that does not exist. It illustrates how narrow a margin one has escaped from some situation.

We could say its usage came in with the 17^th century—like a number of other clichés above—after the King James Bible was published in English. The 17th-century timeline also includes a number of Shakespeare’s plays, the source for all sorts of expressions and clichés. One has to wonder if there were clichés in English before Shakespeare. (OK, probably, but someone will have to point them out to me.)

What’s the skinny: World War II (most likely). Or in other words, just the facts, ma’am. A quick, lean summary. Also, getting to the truth quickly. There is also the suggestion floating around that the term came out of African American vernacular.

In any case, the image is of something stripped down to essentials, no fat.

Skin the cat: 19^th century. The full expression is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Meaning, there is more than one way of doing a thing. Skin the cat is also the name of a gymnastic move.

What is meant by the “cat” is all over the place.

• The “cat” may refer to small game animals.
• It may be a polecat. (Think weasel)
• It may be a fishing cat. (Catfish)
• It may only be a fanciful notion.

The skinning of cats was not common, but not unheard of, more likely in poor rural communities where nothing was wasted. Cat hides were sometimes used for fur trimming on garments and as a blanket—which took numerous cats—purported to help with rheumatism. Also, it could be used for drumheads and tambourines. (Again, not common, and why is my cat staring at me as I write this? I’d best stop here.)