scotch

scotch¹ Scottish; whisky

Etymology

Scotch meaning Scottish is a contracted form of Scottish,^{[1][5][6][7][8]} which goes back to late Old English Scottysc, a variant of Scyttisc.^[9] The older adjective is Scots.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or belonging to Scotland or its people: 1407, in a document printed in Rymer's Foedera.^[1] Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford date the adjective only from the late 16th century.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

Until the middle of the 16th century the usual form in most of England was Scottish.^[1] In Scotland Scots was used until the 18th century, when Scotch became the everyday form, but in the mid 19th century there was a reaction against it because of the insulting phrases the English had made from it, such as Scotch greys for lice.^[5] As a noun it meant the Scottish people from 1603 and the English of Scotland from 1612;^[1] Etymonline dates these senses to 1743 and 1700.^[5] Scotch alone for Scotch whisky is recorded from 1778.^[5] The stereotype of Scottish thrift gave the sense "mean, miserly", recorded in Australia from 1906,^[10] and "frugal" in American dictionaries.^[2][11] Scotch Tape (1945) was said to be so named because the first tape had adhesive only on its edges, which was taken as stinginess on the maker's part; it was a verb by 1955.^[5]

Timeline

• 1407 – of Scotland or its people.^[1]
• 1603 – noun, the Scottish people.^[1][2]
• 1609 – characteristic of Scotland or its people.^[1]
• 1612 – noun, the English spoken in Scotland.^[1]
• 1641 – designating a pedlar who sold on credit.^[1]
• 1778 – Scotch whisky.^[5]
• 1906 – mean, miserly.^[10]
• 1945 – Scotch Tape.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or from Scotland or its people (Scottish), now mainly used outside Scotland and in fixed phrases such as Scotch whisky.^[12][11][2]
2. (informal) Frugal or thrifty.^[2][11]

Noun

1. Whisky distilled in Scotland, or a drink of it: He ordered a Scotch with ice.^[2][11]
2. (with a plural verb) The people of Scotland.^[2][12][11]
3. The English of Scotland; Scots.^[12][11]

Word family

• Scotchman
• Scotch egg
• Scotch tape
• Scotch broth

scotch² cut; put an end to

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English scocchen (“to cut, score, gash”),^[13][5][14] which the revised OED takes as borrowed from Anglo-Norman escocher (“to pierce (skin)”), recorded about 1193, from escoche (“notch”), formed from es- and Old French coche (“notch”).^[1][15] The American Heritage Dictionary, Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster also give this origin, with more or less hesitation,^{[14][13][5][2]} and Barnhart and Klein take the Old French noun probably from Latin coccum (“berry of the scarlet oak”), from Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos), the berry being notched in appearance.^[13][6] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Collins call the origin unknown or obscure.^{[3][8][7][12]} Etymonline notes that the Century Dictionary thought it a deformation of scratch, and that the dates rule out a connection with scorch;^[5] Skeat had taken it as a form of scorch, an extension of score,^[16] and Dictionary.com suggests a blend of score and notch.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cut, score or gash, especially the flesh: in Hoccleve's De Regimine Principum, written about 1412.^[1][13]

Semantic evolution

The noun scotch, a cut or gash, is recorded from about 1450, at first in cookery;^[1][5] it is used for the lines marked on the ground in hopscotch from 1668.^[1] The modern senses come from Shakespeare's Macbeth, where the line "We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it" is Lewis Theobald's emendation (1726) of the printed scorch'd.^{[1][3][17][13]} Read as "wounded", it gave the sense "to make something dangerous harmless for a time", recorded from 1726 in the OED, though Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1798.^[1][13][5] Word Origins explains that scorched there meant slashed with a knife, and that later editors, puzzled by the burning of a snake, assumed a misprint.^[18] The sense "to crush, stamp out" followed in 1825,^[1][13][5] and "to put an end to, quash" (a rumour or a plan) in 1888;^[1] the Oxford Dictionary of English attributes this last sense to the influence of scotch, to wedge a wheel.^[7] In dialect the verb still meant to notch, to trim a hedge or to injure slightly in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Berkshire, Suffolk and the Isle of Wight.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1412 – to cut, score, gash.^[1][13]
• c. 1450 – noun, a cut, gash or notch.^[1][5]
• 1589 – out of all scotch and notch, beyond all limits (obsolete by 1605).^[1]
• 1668 – a line marked on the ground in hopscotch.^[1]
• 1726 – to render temporarily harmless, after Theobald's reading of Macbeth.^[1]
• 1825 – to crush, stamp out.^[1][13][5]
• 1888 – to put an end to, quash.^[1]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put an end to; to quash or foil: The minister scotched the rumours of her resignation.^[12][11][1]
2. (archaic) To wound or injure so as to make harmless for a time.^[12][2]
3. (archaic) To cut, gash or score.^[2][12][1]

Noun

1. A line marked on the ground for hopscotch.^[12][2][1]
2. (archaic) A cut or gash.^[12][2][8]

Word family

• hopscotch

scotch³ wedge, chock

Etymology

The wedge is of uncertain origin,^{[1][8][3][12]} and Merriam-Webster calls it of unknown origin.^[2] The OED links the noun with the verb scotch, to hesitate or to block a wheel, though which came first is unclear; it thinks "wedge" was probably the first sense.^[1] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English suggest a relation to skate,^[8][7] and Hoad notes that the occasional spelling skatch may point to scatch (“stilt”), from Old French escache.^[3] Weekley thought it came from the same Anglo-Norman source as the verb meaning to cut.^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

An obstacle that blocks the progress of something: 1601, in Cornwallis's Essayes.^[1][2] The concrete sense, a block put under a wheel to stop it rolling, is recorded from 1639.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The verb is recorded from 1601 too, first for hesitating or demurring, a sense that survives in the dialects of Cheshire and East Anglia.^[1][2] To block a wheel or gate with a wedge is recorded from 1642, and figuratively to scotch the wheels of something, to obstruct it, from 1648.^[1] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as stopping a wheel by putting a stone or piece of wood under it.^[20] From 1832 it was also used of a horse shying.^[1] The OED now marks the verb as chiefly American, and the Shorter Oxford calls the noun chiefly Scottish and dialectal.^[1][8]

Timeline

• 1601 – noun, an obstacle; verb, to hesitate.^[1][2]
• 1639 – a wedge or block placed under a wheel.^[1]
• 1642 – to block a wheel with a wedge.^[1]
• 1648 – to scotch the wheels, to obstruct.^[1]
• 1832 – of a horse, to shy.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wedge or block put under a wheel or barrel to stop it rolling or slipping; a chock.^[12][2][11]
2. An obstacle or hindrance.^[2][1]

Verb

1. To block or prop with a wedge: They scotched the trailer's wheels on the slope.^[12][2][1]
2. (dialect, England) To hesitate.^[2][1]