scourge
/skɜɹd͡ʒ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.19 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A source of persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble, such as a cruel ruler, disease, pestilence, or war.
verb
To strike (a person, an animal, etc.) with a scourge (noun etymology 1 sense 1) or whip; to flog, to whip.
Transitive verb
verb
To drive, or force (a person, an animal, etc.) to move, with or as if with a scourge or whip.
Transitive verb
verb
To cause (someone or something) persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble; to afflict, to torment.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "He flogged him with a scourge."
- "Yf they breake myne ordinaunces, and kepe not my commaundementes. I vil vyſet their offences with the rodde, and their ſynnes with ſcourges."
- "My father layd vpon you a heauie yoke, vvhich I vvil make heauier: my father bette you vvith ſcourges, but I vvil beate you vvith ſcorpions."
- "Up to coach then goes / Th' observed Maid, takes both the scourge and reins, / And to her side her handmaid straight attains."
- "[H]eaven-born truth, / And moderation fair, vvere the red marks / Of ſuperſtition's ſcourge: […]"
- "Mortify / Your flesh, like me, with scourges and with thorns; / Smite, shrink not, spare not."
Etymology
From Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”), and then either: * from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, escurge, or Old French scurge, escourge, escorge, escorgiee, escurge (modern French escourgée (“(archaic) whip made of leather strips”)), either: ** from Vulgar Latin *excoriāta (“strip of hide; a scourge”), from Late Latin excoriāre, the present active infinitive of excoriō (“to strip the skin from, to skin”), from Latin ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + corium (“skin; hide, leather”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”)); or ** from Latin ex- (intensifying prefix) + corrigia (“a whip”) (from corrigō (“to make right, correct; to reform”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to righten; to straighten”)); or * from Middle English scourgen (verb) (see etymology 2). Cognates Italian scuriada, scuriata
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /skɜɹd͡ʒ/
- British English: /skɜːd͡ʒ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
scourges (plural)
scourges (present, singular)
scourging (participle, present)
scourged (participle, past)
scourged (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
scourged (first person, past)
scourgest (archaic, present)
scourged (past, second person)
scourgedst (archaic, past)
scourgeth (archaic, present)