Skilled means trained and good at a particular kind of work. A skilled worker, highly skilled, skilled in negotiation.
In employment and immigration policy it is a formal category, and where the line falls between skilled and unskilled decides who may work in a country. The distinction is much argued about, since a great deal of so-called unskilled work is nothing of the kind.
1adjectiveskilledTrained and good at a particular kind of work.
“The factory is looking for skilled workers who can operate the new machines.”
skilled is a quality.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)kelH-
Proto-Germanic
*skilją
Old Norse
skil
Middle English
skill
English
skill
English, today
skilled
From skill + -ed. skill comes from Middle English skill, from Old Norse skil, from Proto-Germanic skilją, from Proto-Indo-European (s)kelH-. From Middle English skill, skille (also schil, schile), from Old Norse skil (“a distinction, discernment, knowledge”), from Proto-Germanic skilją (“separation, limit”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)kelH- (“to split, cut”). Cognate with Danish skel (“a separation, boundary, divide”), Swedish skäl (“reason”), Dutch verschil (“difference”) and schillen (“to separate the outer layer (schil) from the product”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA