whither 3e's skills?

As the title may suggest, this is a weird companion piece to my earlier examination of the origins of the skill system in D&D 2000. Instead of looking backwards, I am now looking forward from D&D 2000 to how three iterations on it would attempt to lump and categorize the let's say 50ish individual skills they inherit from it and what I can possibly learn from them.

Ready? Too bad.

whence 3E's skills

The third edition Player's Handbook lists more than forty skills in which its adventurers can have ranks. Although prior editions of the game had skill systems (AD&D's Nonweapon Proficiencies and BECMI's General Skills), the 3rd edition skill system breaks with them in two ways:

• It is no longer an optional part of the game, but instead arguably the most-used non-combat mechanic in 3E D&D.
• The skill system does not use (modified-)ability-score-roll-under, as NWP and General Skills do, but a d20 + bonuses vs target number mechanic, similar to the newly-rationalized d20 + bonuses vs armor class mechanic used in combat.

I'm not going to spill any (digital) ink addressing those points. If you have strong opinions about them, good for you. Rather, I'm going to address the question: where did 3E's list of skills come from?