Ski came into English from Norwegian, with an Old Norse word for a wooden stick or ski further behind it. The equipment’s historical material is part of the name’s ancestry, even when modern skis use other materials.
ski
A long runner used to travel over snow.
Ski came from Norwegian.
How ski reached English
oldest firstOld Norse
skīth
‘A stick of wood; ski’
into Norwegian
Norwegian
ski
‘Ski’
into English
English
ski
‘The snow runner’
The story of ski
Related
A name can outlive the material from which its object was first made.