skivvy

See also: skivvies

English

Alternative forms

skivvie

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈskɪvi/
Audio (General Australian): (file)

Noun

skivvy (plural skivvies)

(dated) A female domestic servant, especially one employed for menial work.
- 1974, Simon Raven, Bring Forth the Body: Alms for Oblivion, volume 3, published 2012, page 194:
  And then Somerset looked at the boys′ skivvy, and saw a well set up young woman with a red round face, an angry face just then but underneath the anger a pleasant one.
- 2002, Krzysztof Miklaszewski, George M. Hyde (translator, editor), Encounters with Tadeusz Kantor, page 143,
  The common skivvy from the mortuary clings immoveably to the priest′s bed, which is just as immoveably guarded by the grandmother, who drives her off with a chamberpot. The skivvy is the photographer′s widow, trying to take a picture.
- 2005, Jenny Telfer Chaplin, The Widow of Candleriggs, unnumbered page:
  “ […] Yes, that was Mac′s Restaurant and I was a kitchen skivvy there, but amazingly, a kitchen skivvy who had actually written a poem. Oh it′s all a very long time ago, Theresa, and so much has happened since then.”
(military slang, Vietnam War) A prostitute.
(US, Australia, New Zealand) A close-fitting, long-sleeved T-shirt with a rolled collar.
- 1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 30:
  Then dark blood squirts from a little hole in Sergeant Gerheim's chest. The red blood blossoms into his white skivvy shirt like a beautiful flower.
- 1998, Tom Byron, The History of Spearfishing and Scuba Diving in Australia, page 191:
  I put my wetsuit and skivvy on a tree to dry, and laid out my other gear on some grass.
- 2005, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This?, page 224:
  ‘He looks so good. He shouldn′t be allowed to wear a black skivvy. Doesn′t he have the most amazing muscles?’
- 2006, Iain McIntyre, Tomorrow Is Today: Australia in the Psychedelic Era, 1966-1970, page 41:
  The button-down shirts and plain coloured skivvies were replaced by beads, fringed shawls and loose fitting Asian-style tops.

Derived terms

skivvy house

Translations

domestic servant

Bulgarian: слугиня f (sluginja)
Czech: služka (cs) f
Macedonian: слу́гинка f (slúginka)
Russian: прислу́га (ru) f (prislúga), служа́нка (ru) f (služánka)
Serbo-Croatian: служавка f, слушкиња f
Swedish: husa (sv) c, hushållerska (sv) c, piga (sv) c

Verb

skivvy (third-person singular simple present skivvies, present participle skivvying, simple past and past participle skivvied)

(intransitive) To perform menial work; to do chores, like a servant.
- 1930, Owen Lattimore, chapter 1, in High Tartary‎^[1], Boston: Little, Brown, page 9:
  We went out by turns, or sent out the apprentices who skivvied for us, to fetch in roast pork […]
- 1985, Caryl Phillips, The Final Passage‎^[2], London: Faber and Faber, page 174:
  ‘My mother was right. “It’ll take the war for the buggers to realize how important we are,” she used to say, “but as soon as Hitler hangs his clogs up we’ll be back skivvying and scurrying like there’s nothing in our heads.”’
- 2001, Jamie O’Neill, At Swim, Two Boys‎^[3], London: Scribner, Part 2, Chapter 13, p. 361:
  He saw no mother but a washerwoman at her skivvying and the dirt-faced children that would be clinging to her skirts.