itch

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English icchen, also yicchen,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English giccan (“to itch”),^[5][6][7][8] from Proto-West Germanic *jukkjan,^[5][6] the source also of Old Saxon jukkian, Middle Dutch joken, Dutch jeuken, Old High German jucchen and German jucken.^[5][8][9][3] The noun is inherited from Middle English icche, also yicche,^[2][4] inherited from Old English gicce, formed from the verb.^{[5][7][10][6]} Old English also had a noun gicþa (“itching”) from the same stem.^[8][7] The OED explains that in the 14th and 15th centuries Middle English forms such as ȝicchen lost the initial ȝ before i, giving modern itch,^[5] while some northern dialects kept a hard k, as in Scots youk.^[5][11] Köbler connects the Germanic verb with the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *yewg- (“to stir up, restless”), with a query.^[12] Partridge suggests the word may be echoic.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, an irritation of the skin relieved by scratching, and the skin disease marked by it, is first recorded in the Leiden Glossary,^[5] before 800 in Barnhart's dating.^[4] The verb, to feel such an irritation, is found in the Old English medical texts, wið giccendre wombe, "for an itching stomach".^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The figurative verb, to have an uneasy craving to do or get something, appears in the Ancrene Riwle, about 1225,^[5][6] often in the phrase one's fingers itch.^[5] The noun followed in 1532, in More, for a restless desire, usually spoken of with contempt;^[5][6][4] the related itching had this sense from the mid 14th century.^[6] Green's Dictionary of Slang records itch for sexual desire from 1594.^[14] The transitive verb, to cause to itch, is recorded from 1577,^[5] and Collins notes the nonstandard use for "to scratch".^[15] Johnson (1755) defined the noun first as a contagious disease of the skin, cured with sulphur;^[16] the Shorter Oxford notes that this sense, scabies, is now rare,^[9] though names such as barber's itch and grocer's itch keep the word for various skin diseases.^[5][9]

Timeline

• before 800 – noun, an itch of the skin, in the Leiden Glossary.^[5][4]
• Old English – verb, to feel an itch.^[5][7]
• c. 1225 – verb, to have a restless craving.^[5][6]
• 1532 – noun, a restless desire.^[5][4]
• 1577 – transitive verb, to cause to itch.^[5]
• 1594 – sexual desire.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tickling or prickling feeling in the skin that makes one want to scratch: an itch on the back of his neck.^[15][2][5]
2. A restless desire or craving: an itch to travel.^[15][2][5]
3. Any of several skin disorders marked by itching, especially scabies.^[15][2][9]

Verb

1. To feel, or to cause, an itch: The wool scarf itched terribly.^[15][2][5]
2. To have a restless desire to do something: The children were itching to open their presents.^[15][2][5]
3. (nonstandard) To scratch the skin.^[15]

Word family

• itchiness
• itchy
• ground itch
• barber's itch
• jock itch
• seven-year itch
• itch mite
• swimmer's itch

Usage notes

Collins records the phrases itching palm, a greedy nature, and have itchy feet, to want to travel or move on.^[15] A separate verb itch, of unknown origin, meant "to move" in Middle English from about 1175, and survives in regional use for "to shift one's position with a jerk", where speakers take it as a form of hitch without its h.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.