scathe
pronunciation
How to pronounce scathe in British English:
UK [skeɪð]
How to pronounce scathe in American English:
US [skeð]
-
- Noun:
- the act of damaging something or someone
Word Origin
- scathe
- scathe: [12] Scathe is now encountered virtually only in the negative form unscathed (first recorded in the 14th century), but originally it was a verb in its own right, meaning ‘harm’. It was borrowed from Old Norse skatha, which was descended from a prehistoric Germanic *skathōjan (source also of German and Dutch schaden ‘harm’). This was formed from a base *skath-, which has links with Irish scathaim ‘mutilate, lame’ and Greek askēthés ‘unhurt’.
- scathe (v.)
- c. 1200, from Old Norse skaða "to hurt, harm, damage, injure," from Proto-Germanic *skath- (cognates: Old English sceaþian "to hurt, injure," Old Saxon skathon, Old Frisian skethia, Middle Dutch scaden, Dutch schaden, Old High German scadon, German schaden, Gothic scaþjan "to injure, damage"), from PIE root *sket- "to injure." Only cognate outside Germanic seems to be in Greek a-skethes "unharmed, unscathed." It survives mostly in its negative form, unscathed, and in figurative meaning "sear with invective or satire" (1852, usually as scathing) which developed from the sense of "scar, scorch" used by Milton in "Paradise Lost" i.613 (1667).
Example
- 1. He scathe his opponent 's honor with rumor .