Meaning: skin

Illustrative Context

His skin was old and hard.

Target Sense

• The most generic term for skin as a part of the human body.
• In many languages the same basic term can also be applied to the skins of (at least some) animals. This is not in itself a concern, provided that the lexeme entered is the default word for the target sense here, i.e. human skin. Avoid terms specific to other animals, however, which are not the default word for human skin, and which may even refer to particular uses of animal skins: e.g. hide, leather.
• Avoid narrower terms specific to the skin of a particular part of the body (e.g. the scalp of the head), or of any particular colour or condition, e.g. tanned skin, burnt skin.
• Avoid narrower terms specific to other parts of the outside of the body, even if perceived to be associated with the skin, e.g. (finger)nails, lips, body hair or animal fur, etc..
• Follow common usage and basic vocabulary. Strict technical and biological classification criteria are not necessarily relevant — on this, see also the definitions for the separate IE-CoR meanings horn, wing, snake and ant. Indeed, avoid specifically medical terminology, if different, e.g. cutis.
• The target sense is the literal body part. Do not enter additional different lexemes specific to any figurative extensions of the English lexeme skin, e.g. as figurative for one’s life or luck, or for any exterior, containing, surrounding or superficial layer, e.g. as formed on a liquid such as milk, soup, etc..