Etymologically
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scrub

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Pronunciation

scrub1 stunted trees, brushwood

Etymology

The stunted tree is a variant of shrub,[2][3][4] inherited from Middle English shrobbe, also schrobbe,[5][6] inherited from Old English scrybb (“brushwood, underwood, shrubbery”).[6][7] Etymonline thinks the spelling with sc- was perhaps influenced by a related Scandinavian word, such as Danish skrub (“brushwood”) in Danish dialect,[6][8] and Holthausen lists that Danish word, North Frisian skrobb and Norwegian skrubba (“dogwood”) beside the Old English noun.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A low, stunted tree or shrub: 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.[2][10] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.[6]

Semantic evolution

From the stunted tree the word passed to other small and poor things:[2][6] from 1555 it named a breed of small cattle, and later, in North America, any animal of inferior breed or poor physique.[2][6] From 1589 it was used of a mean, insignificant person,[2][6][4] and Cotgrave (1611) used it for a person of very small stature.[2] Johnson (1755) explained the "mean fellow" sense instead from the verb, as one who scrubs himself for the itch or does the work of scouring away dirt.[11] The collective sense, brushwood or a tract of land overgrown with it, is recorded from 1805,[2][6] or 1809 in Barnhart;[10] in Australia and New Zealand scrub came to mean any heavily wooded country,[2][3] and Weekley calls the collective sense Australian.[12] The adjective, from the noun, meant "mean, contemptible" from 1711, in Swift,[2][6] and later, chiefly in the United States, "stunted" of plants (1749) and "of inferior breed" of livestock (1744).[2] From 1867 American sports used it for a team or player that was not first-class;[2] Etymonline dates the noun for an athlete not on the varsity team to 1892.[6] In slang a scrub could be a lout or a worthless person from about 1698,[13] and a disreputable woman from 1900.[2] In Lincolnshire and Gloucestershire dialect the noun still meant a bush, and in Scotland a mean, grasping person.[14]

Timeline

  • 1398 – a low, stunted tree.[2][10]
  • 1555 – a breed of small cattle.[2][6]
  • 1589 – a mean, insignificant person.[2]
  • 1611 – a very small person (now obsolete).[2]
  • 1711 – adjective, mean, contemptible.[2]
  • 1744 – adjective, of livestock, of inferior breed.[2]
  • 1766 – scrub oak, a low American oak.[6]
  • 1805 – brushwood; land overgrown with it.[2][6]
  • 1867 – of a team or player, not first-class.[2]
  • 1923 – the Scrubs, Wormwood Scrubs Prison.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Vegetation made up mainly of stunted trees and shrubs, often thick and growing on poor soil; brushwood: The fire spread quickly through the dry scrub.[5][15][2]
  2. Land covered with such growth; in Australia and New Zealand, any heavily wooded country.[5][2][3]
  3. A single stunted tree or shrub.[5][2]
  4. A domestic animal of mixed or inferior breed.[5][2][15]
  5. (informal) An insignificant or contemptible person.[15][2]
  6. (North American) A player or team that is not among the best or regular ones.[15][2]

Adjective

  1. Small, stunted or of inferior quality: scrub pines.[2][15]
  2. (US) Of a team, player or game: second-rate, not of regular standing.[2][13]

Word family

  • scrubby
  • scrubland
  • scrub jay
  • scrub oak

scrub2 to rub hard

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English scrobben, earlier shrubben,[6][10][16] probably borrowed from Middle Low German schrubben or Middle Dutch schrobben.[3][4][16][17][18] The OED calls its history obscure: the English verb was adopted from, or corresponds to, the Middle Low German and Middle Dutch verbs, the source of German schrubben, Swedish skrubba and Danish skrubbe, perhaps related to scrape, and compare grub.[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster leave open a Scandinavian source,[10][5] and Etymonline also an unrecorded Old English cognate,[6] while Partridge thought the word probably echoic.[19] Etymonline and Klein think it ultimately goes back to the same source as shrub and scrub1, the verb first meaning to clean with a bunch of twigs, as with broom and brush;[6][8] Weekley too saw a connection with the noun, and took the verb as a nautical word borrowed in the 16th century, after one Middle English record.[12] The noun, the act of scrubbing, is formed from the verb.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To curry-comb a horse: before 1400, in Kyng Alisaunder.[2][10] The variant shrubben, to scratch or rub oneself, is found in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne (written about 1303),[16][10] and Etymonline dates it to about 1300.[6]

Semantic evolution

After the Middle English sense of currying a horse, the verb meant to scratch or rub a part of one's body (1596–1725).[2][3] The main modern sense, to clean a floor, deck or the like by rubbing with a hard brush and water, is first recorded about 1595 in an account of Drake's voyage,[2][5] which agrees with Weekley's view of it as a sailors' word.[12] The sense "to cancel, erase" appears in 1828, in Walter Scott's journal,[2][6] probably from rubbing out an entry on a list;[6] Green's finds it in 1803,[13] and it became popular in the Second World War of air missions that were called off.[6] Surgeons have scrubbed their hands and arms before operating since 1900,[2] and engineers have scrubbed gases to remove impurities since 1885.[2] The noun, an act of scrubbing, dates from 1621;[2][6][5] it also named a hard brush (1687), a drudge (1709), a cancellation (1952) and the loose cotton clothes worn by hospital staff (1982).[2][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – shrubben, to scratch or rub oneself.[6][16]
  • before 1400 – to curry-comb a horse.[2]
  • c. 1595 – to clean by rubbing with a hard brush and water.[2][5]
  • 1596 – to scratch or rub a part of one's body (obsolete by 1725).[2]
  • 1621 – noun, an act of scrubbing.[2][5]
  • 1687 – noun, a hard brush.[2]
  • 1828 – to cancel, call off.[2][6]
  • 1885 – to remove impurities from a gas.[2]
  • 1900 – of surgeons, to wash before an operation.[2]
  • 1952 – noun, a cancellation of a flying mission.[2][6]
  • 1982 – scrubs, hospital clothing.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To rub something hard to clean it, usually with a stiff brush, soap and water: They scrubbed the deck before inspection.[17][5][2]
  2. To remove dirt or a stain by hard rubbing.[17][15]
  3. To rub or scrape against something: The tyres scrubbed on the wet road.[5][2]
  4. scrub up or scrub: of a surgeon, to wash and disinfect the hands and arms before an operation.[17][5][2]
  5. To remove impurities from a gas or vapour, usually by passing it through a liquid.[17][5][2]
  6. (informal) To cancel or call off: The launch was scrubbed because of high winds.[17][2]
  7. (horse racing) Of a jockey, to urge a horse on with rhythmic movements of the arms and legs.[17][2]
  8. (obsolete) To curry-comb a horse.[2][16]
  9. (obsolete, 1596–1725) To scratch or rub a part of one's body.[2][3]

Noun

  1. An act of scrubbing.[5][2]
  2. scrubs: loose cotton clothes worn by surgeons and other hospital staff.[5][2]
  3. A brush with short, hard bristles.[5][2]
  4. A mildly abrasive cleansing preparation for the skin: a facial scrub.[2]
  5. A drudge; a person who scrubs.[5][2]
  6. (slang) A cancellation, especially of a flight.[2]

Word family

  • scrubber
  • scrubbable
  • scrub brush
  • shrub
  • scrape
  • shrubbery

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ 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)
  15. ^ a b c d e f Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  16. ^ a b c d e 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)
  17. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  19. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul