scab

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English scab, also scabbe,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse skabb (“scab, itch”),^{[4][5][6][3][7][8]} and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Klein call it of Scandinavian origin.^[2][9] The OED stars the Norse form as *skabbr and compares Old Swedish skabber, Swedish skabb and Danish skab, the last recorded from the 13th century.^[10][6] It corresponds to the native Old English sceabb (“scab, itch”),^[10][11][12] which survives as dialect shab and in shabby.^[8][10][13] Not all accept a simple loan: Barnhart thinks the word was probably developed in part from the Old English noun but mainly borrowed,^[14] Etymonline derives it from both,^[13] and Collins gives Old English alone.^[15] Weekley allowed that it could be the Old English word, its pronunciation influenced by Latin scabiēs (“itch, mange”).^[16] The Norse and Old English forms go back to Proto-Germanic *skabbaz,^[1][17] from a base *skab- (“to scratch, shave”), the source of shave.^[13][8] The Latin noun, with scabō (“to scratch”), is cognate,^[8][9][10] but the root is given differently: Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (“to cut, scrape, hack”) in Etymonline,^[13] and *skabʰ- (“to cut, split, carve, shape”) in Wiktionary.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A skin disease with pustules or scales, a general term that could also mean the itch or ringworm: about 1250, in a Kentish sermon.^[10][6] Etymonline dates it to the mid 13th century,^[13] and Barnhart gives about 1275, with the surname Skabbe in 1264.^[14]

Semantic evolution

From the disease, the word passed to the patches and ulcers that went with it, according to Etymonline, and so to the sense that is now the main one, the crust over a wound.^[13] Barnhart finds that sense in Middle English in 1392, probably reinforced by the Latin word.^[14] Chaucer used it for a blemish of the skin and for a disease of sheep.^[18][19] Johnson (1755) gave the crust first, and quoted Coriolanus: "Make yourselves scabs".^[20] As abuse, for a low, mean fellow, it dates from about 1590,^[14][10][21] and several Oxford dictionaries think Middle Dutch schabbe (“slut, scold”) may have helped this use along.^{[10][6][22][5][23]} Collins compares Middle Low German schabbe (“scoundrel”).^[15] The labour sense began with a worker who would not join a trade union (1777),^[10][14][13] and by 1806, in the record of an American trial of boot and shoemakers, it meant someone who would not join a strike; the verb appears in the same record.^{[10][21][14][13]} Plant growers took the word up in the 18th century for a fungal disease that leaves rough patches,^[10][6] and iron-founders in the late 19th for a blemish on a casting.^[10][6] The flood-scoured scablands of the Pacific Northwest had that name by 1923.^[13] English dialects also had scab-gowks, the early purple orchis, in Durham, and a separate verb scab, to break large stones, in Lakeland and Lancashire.^[24]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a skin disease with pustules or scales (obsolete by 1757).^[10]
• 1264 – the surname Skabbe.^[14]
• c. 1386 – a disease of animals, in Chaucer's Pardoner's Prologue, of sheep.^[10][19]
• 1392 – the crust over a wound.^[14] The OED's first quotation for it is from about 1400, in a translation of Lanfranc's Cirurgie.^[10][13]
• c. 1529 – figuratively, a moral or spiritual disease (obsolete by 1791).^[10]
• 1590 – a mean, low fellow, in Three Lords and Three Ladies of London.^[21] The OED's first quotation is from before 1592, in Greene's Frier Bacon.^[10]
• 1632 – verb, to form a scab on something (obsolete).^[10][14]
• 1683 – verb, to become crusted with a scab.^[10][14][2]
• 1742 – a disease of cultivated plants.^[10]
• 1777 – a worker who refuses to join a trade union.^[10][14][13]
• 1806 – a person who refuses to join a strike; verb, to act as a scab.^{[10][14][13][21]}
• 1881 – adjective, of strike-breaking, in scab beer.^[21]
• 1881 – in iron-founding, a blemish on a casting.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The dry crust that forms over a wound or sore as it heals: Try not to pick the scab on your knee.^[15][2][10]
2. A contagious skin disease of animals, especially sheep, a form of mange caused by a mite.^[15][2][6]
3. A fungal disease of plants, such as apples and potatoes, that leaves rough, crusty patches.^[15][6][10]
4. (derogatory) A worker who refuses to join a trade union or a strike, or who takes a striker's place; a strikebreaker or blackleg.^[15][2][6]
5. (derogatory) A contemptible person; a scoundrel.^[15][2][10]
6. (founding) A lump or blister on an iron casting, caused by erosion of the wall of the mould.^[6][10]
7. (obsolete, c. 1250–1757) A skin disease with pustules or scales.^[10][6][2]

Adjective

1. (derogatory) Working as a scab, or produced by or employing scabs: The union picketed the scab bakery.^[6][21]

Verb

1. To form a scab; to become covered with one: The graze on her elbow scabbed over within days.^[15][2][10]
2. To work as a scab.^[2][6][10]
3. (rare) To treat or label a person or firm as a scab.^[10][6][2]
4. Of metal: to throw off a piece from the side opposite the place struck.^[2]

Word family

• scablike
• scabby
• scabland
• apple scab

Related words

• scabies
• scabrous
• shabby
• shab
• scabious
• shave

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
12. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
18. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
19. ^ a b Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
20. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
21. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
22. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
23. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
24. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)