I published this a while ago… am I being cheapskate by publishing it again?!!
Even if you don’t actually know the meaning of the word cheapskate you can guess the meaning – it’s just one of those words! Combining cheap in the sense of being miserly or lacking generosity, with the word skate as in the fish which would be all slithery and slippery, and being flat would be able to squeeze through narrow gaps or out of tricky situations – skate meaning to glide over ice and the idea of slipping away swiftly and silently and easily from something gives a very clear and visual idea.
The word seems to have originated in the 1890’s in America… but maybe the skate part of the word had a more scatological origin… which makes sense if you were insulting someone!
Cheap now means inexpensive or insulting, but original the sword meant to do with trade; Cheapside and Cheap Street were where the traders and merchants were. This word for trade might have had an older origin, being connected to cattle, which of course would have been traded from earliest times.
Have a look at these interesting blogs about ‘cheapskate:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-che2.htm
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/17/1171054/-Origins-of-English-Cheapskate
Lois Elsden 