Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, 11th Edition
SKELETON
I. noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek, neuter of skeletos dried up; akin to Greek skellein to dry up, sklēros hard and perhaps to Old English sceald shallow
Date: 1578
a usually rigid supportive or protective structure or framework of an organism, something reduced to its minimum form or essential parts, an emaciated person or animal,
4. something forming a structural framework, the straight or branched chain or ring of atoms that forms the basic structure of an organic molecule, something shameful and kept secret (as in a family), skeletonic adjective
II. adjective
Date: 1778
of, consisting of, or resembling a skeleton