/skɪt/
[noun] A short, funny piece of writing or acting that makes fun of someone or something. A skit is usually performed by a small group and lasts only a few minutes.
The word 'skit' likely comes from an Old Norse word meaning to shoot or move quickly — comedy as a rapid-fire attack.
The word 'skit' arrived in English in the early 18th century, most likely carried in from the Scandinavian languages that had deeply shaped the dialects of northern England. Its closest ancestor is the Old Norse verb 'skjóta', meaning to shoot, to move quickly, or to dart — a root that suggests something swift and sharp, like an arrow released from a bow. This same Old Norse root gave English the word 'shoot' through a separate but parallel path: Old Norse 'skjóta' → Old English 'scēotan' → Middle English 'sheten' → Modern English 'shoot'. The idea of speed and sudden impact was baked into the word from the very beginning.
In its earliest English uses, a 'skit' did not refer to a comic performance at all. In the 1700s, particularly in northern English and Scottish dialects, a 'skit' meant a swift, cutting remark — a verbal jab meant to mock or satirise someone. The word also described a piece of light, satirical writing, the kind of sharp pamphlet or lampoon that was enormously popular in the coffeehouses and political circles of Georgian Britain. The sense of quickness was still there: a skit was something fast, pointed, and designed to sting.
Alongside this meaning, a related verb 'to skit' was used to mean moving or darting about quickly, or to frisk and caper. You can see how the two ideas — something fast and something playful — were always present together in this small, energetic word. The Scots word 'skit' could also describe a playful trick or a light frolic, and in some dialects it was even used to describe a sudden shower of rain, something that arrives quickly, strikes, and disappears.
By the 19th century, the word had settled more firmly into the world of entertainment. A 'skit' came to mean a short comic piece performed on stage — a brief theatrical sketch, usually satirical or absurd. This sense grew naturally from the earlier meaning of a mocking written piece, as the world of popular theatre in Britain and America enthusiastically borrowed written satire and turned it into performance. Music halls, variety shows, and later vaudeville and radio comedy all made the 'skit' a staple format — short, punchy, and designed for a quick laugh.
Today, the word 'skit' is most commonly associated with television comedy programmes and online videos, where a short comic scene — often just two or three minutes long — is still called by this name. Its relatives in English include 'skittish', which shares that same Old Norse root sense of darting and unpredictability, and 'skitter', meaning to move about lightly and quickly. Even 'scat', as in scat singing in jazz — improvised, fast, and playful — may carry echoes of the same ancient Scandinavian idea of something that shoots forward and surprises you.