One way to hold it: a horse that jumps sideways at a shadow. The thing on the ground is only a paper bag, and the whole animal is already three steps away. The move is quick, sideways, and comes with no warning, because the reaction is set far lighter than the cause. Hold that lightness, and the word travels: a body can jump like that, and so can a mood, an opinion, or a room full of people watching prices.
From the word’s history
The packet says the word probably comes from the dialect word skite, meaning to move suddenly and at an angle, plus -ish, and points to skitter as a relative. If that is right, the darting sideways movement sits in the word from the start, and fear is only the commonest reason for it.
手上的資料說 skittish 可能來自方言字 skite（突然、斜斜地竄開），加上 -ish，並指出它跟 skitter 是一家。如果是這樣，這個字從一開始講的就是那個「橫著一竄」的動作本身，害怕只是最常見的原因。來源上寫的是 probably，所以這是一種推測，不是定論。
Wiktionary (kaikki extract) 'skittish' etymology_text: Probably from skite (to move lightly and hurriedly; to move suddenly, particularly in an oblique direction) + -ish; compare skitter. Marked 'probably' in the source.
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