scurvy
/ˈskɜɹvi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.73 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Affected or covered with scurf (“skin disease causing flakes of skin to fall off”) or scabs; scurfy, scabby; also, of or relating to a skin disease causing scurf or to scurvy (noun sense 1).
Obsolete
noun
A disease caused by insufficient intake of vitamin C, leading to the formation of livid spots on the skin, spongy gums, loosening of the teeth, and bleeding into the skin and from almost all mucous membranes; (countable, obsolete) an occurrence of this disease.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Some wenches come vnlased, / Some hyswyues come vnbrased, / Wyth theyr naked pappes, / That flappes and flappes; / […] / A sorte of foule drabbes / All scuruy with scabbes: […]"
- "The bran of VVheate boiled in ſharpe vineger, and rubbed vpon them that be ſcuruie and mangie, easeth the partie very much."
- "This medicine is vvell approued to cure all ſorts of Paine, Scratches, Moully heeles, or any other skiruy ſcalls vvhatſoeuer, that may breede in a horſes leg or heeles, […]"
- "Whoſoeuer he be of thy ſeed in their generations, that hath any blemiſh, let him not approche to offer the bread of his God: […] [he] that hath a blemiſh in his eye, or be ſcuruy, or ſcabbed, […]"
- "a scurvy knave a scurvy trick"
- "Iſt not a ſcuruie ieſt, that a man ſhould ieſt himſelfe to death."
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English scurvi, scurvy, variants of scurfi (“having scurf, scabby”), from scurf (“skin disease causing scabs or scales; flakes of skin that fall off due to a skin disease, etc.”) + -i (suffix forming adjectives). Scurf is derived from Old English scurf, from Proto-Germanic *skurf- (“to gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”). By surface analysis, scurf (“skin disease; flakes of skin that fall off due to a skin disease; crust-like formations on the skin”) + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives). The noun is derived from the adjective. It was used to translate the similar-sounding Dutch scheurbuik, French scorbut, Middle Low German schorbūk (“scurvy (disease)”), etc.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈskɜɹvi/
- British English: /ˈskɜːvi/