The phrase "dormant skill" is correct and can be used in written English.
It refers to a skill that is present but not currently being used or developed. Example: After years of working in an office, she discovered her dormant skill for painting and decided to pursue it as a hobby.
In a similar vein, The School in the Cloud takes advantage of dormant skills in retirees to facilitate remote learning among some of the world's most underprivileged children, tapping into a resource that might otherwise be unused and undervalued.
User experience, once a second or third tier concern, is now at the forefront and the crutch of XP mode will reduce the impetus of the average programmer to really ramp up these dormant skills.
A supportive management style can bring dormant skills to the surface.
Contemplative activities such as meditation are a real winner in fostering this often-dormant skill set of inner reflection.
And Amy wished to rediscover dormant juggling skills.
Though my wife and I both grew up in houses with yards, our long-dormant suburban skills were rusty at best.
In December 2005, I used those long-dormant basketball skills to elbow my way through the crush of an Istanbul courtroom to watch him answer charges of "publicly denigrating Turkish identity".
Mr Brown's own political skill, dormant for much of his premiership, is a big part of the story.
Now, researchers have figured out which parts of the man's brain were rejiggered to allow for such savant skills, and the findings suggest such skills may lie dormant in all human brains.
While Africa's contribution to the seven summits ranks high on the to-do list of serious mountaineers, scaling the 5,895-metre 5,895-metre dormant volcano requires no technical skill.
