scold

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English scald, also scold,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Old Norse skáld (“poet”), the source of skald.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The OED calls the sense development strange, but thinks that a stage "lampooner" is suggested by the derivative skáldskapr (“poetry”), which in the Icelandic law books means libel in verse.^[10][5] The verb, scolden, comes from the noun.^[11][10][6] The OED finds no etymological connection with the similar West Germanic verbs Old Frisian skelda, Old Saxon sceldan, Dutch schelden and German schelten,^[10] although Skeat derived the English word from that group,^[12] and Johnson compared the Dutch form.^[13] The Old Norse noun has no satisfactory etymology;^[10][14] Partridge and Merriam-Webster compare Old Irish scél (“story”),^[4][2] and Etymonline, after Watkins, suggests Proto-Indo-European *sekw- (“to say, utter”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person using coarse or abusive language: about 1175, in the plural scaldes in the Ormulum.^[10][15] Etymonline says the mid-12th century,^[9] and Barnhart probably about 1150.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The noun narrowed from any ribald or abusive person to a nagging, quarrelsome woman, by about 1300 in Etymonline.^[9][6] The poet behind it may explain the abuse, since Germanic poets were feared for their mockery.^[9][14] In old law a common scold, Latin communis rixatrix, is known from the late 15th century,^[9] and the OED's first record of a woman disturbing the neighbours in this way is from a court roll of 1467.^[10] Such women could be punished with a scold's bridle.^[14][16] Johnson (1755) still defined the noun as a foul-mouthed woman, and the verb as to quarrel clamorously.^[13] The verb began in the 14th century as "to quarrel noisily, to use abusive language".^[10][11][14] It softened to persistent fault-finding,^[10][9] and the transitive "to rebuke someone" appears only in the early 18th century: 1718 in the OED,^[10] by 1715 in Etymonline.^[9] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins dates "chide" to the mid 16th century instead.^[17] A rebuke is called a scold from 1726,^[18] now mainly in Scots, which also has scaad and scauld.^[16][10]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – noun, a person who uses coarse or abusive language.^[10][15]
• c. 1300 – a person fond of abusive chiding, especially a shrewish woman.^[9]
• 1377 – verb, to quarrel noisily; to use abusive language, in Piers Plowman.^[10][8][11]
• 1467 – a woman who disturbs the peace of the neighbourhood.^[10]
• before 1592 – transitive, to scold it out, to wrangle to the end.^[10]
• 1718 – transitive, to rebuke someone angrily.^[10][18]
• 1726 – noun, an act of scolding.^[18][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rebuke someone angrily or at length, especially a child or subordinate: She scolded the boys for tracking mud indoors.^[19][2][10]
2. To find fault persistently; to speak harshly.^[19][2][6]
3. To force someone into a state or action by scolding.^[2][10]
4. (obsolete) To quarrel noisily or abusively.^[2][10]

Noun

1. A person who constantly finds fault, traditionally a woman.^[19][2][10]
2. common scold: (old law) a woman who disturbs the peace of the neighbourhood by scolding.^[10][6][2]
3. (now chiefly Scots) A severe reprimand.^[2][10][16]

Word family

• scolder
• scoldingly
• scoldable
• outscold

Related words

• skald

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ a b c 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)
17. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
19. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins