skiffle1
[skif-uh l]
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Origin of skiffle1
perhaps akin to scabble
skiffle2
[skif-uh l]
- a jazz style of the 1920s deriving from blues, ragtime, and folk music, played by bands made up of both standard and improvised instruments.
- a style of popular music developed in England during the 1950s, deriving from hillbilly music and rock-'n'-roll, and played on a heterogeneous group of instruments, as guitar, washboard, ceramic jug, washtub, and kazoo.
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Origin of skiffle2
First recorded in 1920–25; origin uncertain
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for skiffle
Contemporary Examples
You spice it with blues and skiffle music, and pickle it in alcohol and tobacco smoke.
skiffle1
- a style of popular music of the 1950s, played chiefly on guitars and improvised percussion instruments
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Word Origin
C20: of unknown origin
skiffle2
- Ulster dialect a drizzlea skiffle of rain
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Word Origin
from Scottish skiff, from skiff to move lightly, probably changed from skift, from Old Norse skipta shift
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for skiffle
n.
style of U.K. pop music, 1957, from U.S. slang meaning "type of jazz played on improvised instruments" (1926), of unknown origin.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper