Etymologically
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itch

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Pronunciation

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.