- with the Watford connection being Tuesday's new 4-5-1 formation & comparatively red hot performance.
OK - the term 'skiving' is now in common use to describe somebody avoiding work or not pulling their weight - but how and where did the term originate from ?
Skiver was the original name for a kind of book binder who used very thin materials for working and was viewed by leather workers as cutting corners to save time and labour.
Apropos of nothing at all, the Aussie equivalent of skiver is bludger - sounds far better to my ears, more earthy & insulting.
Not the derivation I have - but you are close from a materials perspective yet you are not as qualified to comment as another poster (cryptic)
aha.... is it to do with leather for boots and cutting corners to save time and cost by using slim cuts?
Ah - the 'Service' Industry of yesteryear, where the upper classes employed servants, many of whom were skivvies. Presumably a skivvy was one who skived...
you got it - but actually wasn't cutting corners - each pair of boots is generally made of four panels - if you simply stitched them together where they meet each other and the upper / sole you'd get a ridge or bulge - so the edges of the leather are shaved down with an incredibly sharp tool - the 'skiving' tool - this was the only job in the traditional factories that was undertaken sitting down - hence 'skiving' was 'sitting down on the job' - had this first hand whilst having a factory tour at the Dr Martens factory in Wollaston, Northants only a couple of weeks ago.
That was a really good one... .and interesting over to me... (but remembering ak is due to ask one too)....
