scrum

Etymology

It is a clipping of scrummage,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} itself a variant of scrimmage.^[3][8][6][5] Scrimmage is an alteration of skirmish, through the older variant scrimish, with the ending changed to -age.^[5][2] Wiktionary takes scrum as either a back-formation from scrummage or a shortened form of it.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In rugby, a disorderly tussle in which players of both sides crowd together and try to force the ball and their opponents towards the other goal: 1876, in Bell's Life in London.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the rugby sense to 1857,^[8] Etymonline to 1888,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1885–90.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The scrum began as a free-for-all struggle for the ball; the Shorter Oxford notes that it later became an ordered formation called by the referee to restart play.^[6][2] By 1898 the word also meant the group of forwards who take part in it.^[2] From 1905 it was used outside sport for any chaotic struggle and for a disorderly crowd of people or things,^[2] a transferred sense that Etymonline dates by 1950.^[3] In Canada, from 1965, a scrum is an impromptu crush of reporters questioning a politician, and since 1981 the verb has meant to question someone in this way.^[2][1] The verb itself is recorded in rugby from 1889, and in the general sense "to jostle in a crowd" from 1913.^[2] Wiktionary also records it in agile software development for a short daily team meeting, in the method called Scrum.^[1]

Timeline

• 1876 – rugby, a disorderly struggle for the ball.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1857.^[8]
• 1889 – verb, to compete for the ball in a scrum.^[2]
• 1898 – the group of players who form the scrum.^[2]
• 1905 – a chaotic struggle; a disorderly crowd.^[2]
• 1913 – verb, to jostle in a packed crowd.^[2]
• 1965 – Canadian, an impromptu press conference.^[2]
• 1981 – Canadian verb, to question a politician in a scrum.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. In rugby, a formation in which the forwards of each team bind together with heads down and push against the other side while the ball is put in between them to restart play.^[10][8][2]
2. The group of players who take part in this formation.^[2][1]
3. (informal) A disorderly struggle, or a tightly packed, disorderly crowd: a scrum of shoppers at the sale counter.^[10][8][2]
4. (Canada) A crowd of reporters pressing round a politician for comments; an impromptu press conference.^[2][1]

Verb

1. In rugby, to form or take part in a scrum.^[2][10]
2. To push and jostle in a crowd.^[2]
3. (Canada) To question a politician in a scrum.^[2]

Related words

• scrummage
• scrimmage
• skirmish
• scrumptious

Usage notes

A separate informal adjective scrum, delicious or delightful, is a shortening of scrumptious, recorded from 1877.^[2][11] In Australian and New Zealand rhyming slang, scrum was a threepenny piece, from 1893.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c 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 d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com