scum

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English scume, also scome,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Middle Dutch schūm (“foam, froth”), now Dutch schuim, or the related Middle Low German schūm,^{[5][6][7][8][9][2]} from Proto-Germanic *skūmaz,^[2][8][10] which also gave Old High German scūm, now German Schaum, and Swedish skum and Danish skum.^[11][12] The OED leaves the immediate source open: the word cannot continue an unrecorded Old English *scūm, which would have begun with “sh”, a Scandinavian source is unlikely given where the early texts were written, and the Old French form may lie behind the spelling scume but cannot give the modern form; perhaps a French borrowing was replaced by a Dutch or Low German one brought in as a term of brewing or another trade.^[11] The vowel was shortened already in the 14th century, as the spelling scome shows, as in thumb and plum.^[11] The Germanic word was also borrowed into Romance, as Old French escume, now French écume, Italian schiuma and Spanish escuma,^[11][9][13] and the Old French verb escumer (“to remove the top layer”) gave skim.^[10] The Germanic noun is perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu- (“to cover, conceal”), scum being what covers a liquid,^{[9][10][12][11][2]} the root also of sky.^[12][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Foam or froth: before 1250, in the Proverbs of Alfred.^[11] Barnhart's first record is scome in the Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340),^[2] and Etymonline dates the word to the early 14th century, implied in scomour (“a ladle for skimming”).^[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense "foam" lasted until the late 17th century.^[11][6] From the 15th century the word was used of a film of floating matter on a boiling or fermenting liquid, or on stagnant water (about 1440).^[11][8] From 1526 it was also the dross on molten metal.^[11] Ayto describes how it slid from a covering layer of froth to a film of dirt and then simply to dirt.^[10] Applied to people, the lowest or most worthless part of a population, it is first found in Marlowe's Tamburlaine (1590 in the OED, 1586 in Barnhart),^[11][2][9] and scum of the earth is attested by 1712.^[9] Shakespeare used it in Richard III for a body of such people;^[11] from 1607 it could also be said of a single worthless person.^[11] The verb meant to skim off scum from about 1400 and to scour the sea or land from about 1420; it now means to become covered with scum (1661).^[11] In American slang scum has meant semen since the 1940s (1944 in Green's, 1967 in the OED).^[14][11] In Scotland and Northumberland a scum was also a blow on the mouth.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1250 – foam, froth.^[11]
• 1340 – scome, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt.^[2]
• c. 1400 – verb, to skim off scum.^[11]
• c. 1440 – a film of floating matter on a liquid.^[11][8]
• 1526 – dross on molten metal.^[11]
• 1590 – the lowest class of people, in Marlowe.^[11]
• 1661 – verb, to become covered with scum.^[11]
• 1712 – scum of the earth.^[9]
• 1944 – US slang, semen.^[14]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A layer of impurities or froth that forms on the surface of a liquid, as in boiling or fermentation: Skim the scum off the soup before serving.
2. A film of algae and other growth on stagnant water.
3. The dross on the surface of molten metal.
4. (informal) A worthless or despicable person or group of people; the lowest part of society.
5. (US, vulgar slang) semen.

Verb

1. To remove the scum from a liquid.
2. To become covered with scum.

Word family

• scummer
• scummily
• scumminess
• scummy
• scumless
• scumlike
• scumbag
• scumboard

Related words

• skim
• meerschaum
• sky

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ 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)