scavenger

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈskævɪndʒə/ (UK); /ˈskævəndʒɚ/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is an alteration of Middle English scavager,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman scawageour (“collector of scavage”),^[3][4][6] from scawage, a duty on goods sold by merchants from elsewhere,^[2][3][5] from Old North French escauwage “inspection”,^[4][5] of Germanic origin and related to English show.^[3][4][5] The n before the last syllable developed in the 1500s, as in messenger and passenger.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A London official who collected a toll on goods offered for sale by non-resident merchants (1373 as scawageour).^[4][5][7]

Semantic evolution

The scavagers' duties came to include keeping the streets clean,^[5] so by 1530 a scavenger was a person hired to remove refuse from the streets.^[7][3][4][5] From 1596 the word was applied to animals that feed on decaying matter,^[7] and figuratively to people who do dirty work or collect filth.^[7] In 19th-century cotton mills a scavenger was a child who picked up loose cotton from the floor.^[7][1] In chemistry it names a substance that removes impurities.^[2][3][6]

Timeline

• 1373 – scawageour, a collector of duty on goods.^[4]
• 1530 – a person employed to clean the streets.^[7][3][4]
• 1562 – figurative, one who does dirty work.^[7]
• 1596 – an animal feeding on decaying matter.^[7]
• 1833 – a child picking up waste cotton in a mill.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An animal, such as a vulture or a beetle, that feeds on dead or decaying matter.
2. A person who searches through rubbish for food or useful things.
3. (chiefly British) A street cleaner.
4. (chemistry) A substance that removes or neutralizes impurities.

Word family

• scavenger hunt

Related words

• scavenge
• show

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press