Meaning

noun panel forming the lower part of an interior wall when it is finished differently from the rest of the wall

noun wooden panels that can be used to line the walls of a room

originFrom Middle English waynscot, from Middle Low German wagenschot or Middle Dutch waghenscote, assumed to be from wagen (“wagon”) (from Old Saxon wagan) + schot, meaning “partition, crossbar," which is from or related to skiotan (“to shoot”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0