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scurf. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
scurf, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From scurf (“skin disease causing scabs or scales; flakes of skin that fall off due to a skin disease, etc.”), from Old English scurf, from Proto-Germanic *skurf- (“to gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”). Cognate with Dutch schurft, German Schorf, Danish skurv, Swedish skorv.
Noun
scurf (countable and uncountable, plural scurfs)
- A skin disease.
- The flakes of skin that fall off as a result of a skin disease.
- Synonym: dandruff
- Any crust-like formations on the skin, or in general.
1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 670–673:There ſtood a Hill not far whoſe frieſly top / Belch'd fire and rowling ſmoak; the reſt entire / Shon with a gloſſie ſcurff, undoubted ſign / That in his womb was hid metallic Ore,
- (figurative) The foul remains of anything adherent.
- Synonym: scum
1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, page 392, line 1011:The Scurf is worn away, of each committed Crime
- (botany) Minute membranous scales on the surface of some leaves, as in the goosefoot.
- (obsolete, slang) A low, mean person.
Derived terms
Translations
See also
References
- (low, mean person): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary
Etymology 2
Noun
scurf (plural scurfs)
- A grey bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus).
References
- ^ “scurf, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ Asa Gray (1857) “.] Scurf.”, in First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology, , New York, N.Y.: Ivison & Phinney and G P Putnam & Co., , →OCLC.
Anagrams
Old English
Noun
scurf m
- scurf
Further reading