scurvy
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ɜː(r)vi
[edit] Etymology
- Noun usage from the adjective scurvy influenced by or a variant of scurfy. Took on meaning of Dutch scheurbuik, French scorbut (“scurvy”), possibly from Old Norse skyrbjúgr, skyr (“sour milk”) + bjúgr (“swelling, tumour”) whence the Icelandic skyrbjúgur (“scurvy”). Compare German scharbock, Late Latin scorbutus.
- Alternate etymology is, from Middle Dutch, from Middle Low German.
[edit] Noun
scurvy (usually uncountable; plural scurvies)
- (pathology) A disease caused by insufficient intake of vitamin C leading to the formation of livid spots on the skin, spongy gums, loosening of the teeth and bleeding into the skin and from almost all mucous membranes.
[edit] Synonyms
- (vitamin C deficiency disease): Barlow's disease, Cheadle-Möller-Barlow syndrome, Cheadle's disease, Moeller's disease, Möller-Barlow disease, scorbutus
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
deficiency of vitamin C
[edit] Adjective
scurvy (comparative scurvier, superlative scurviest)
- Contemptible, despicable, low, disgustingly mean.
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] See also
[edit] Translations
Contemptible, despicable, low, disgustingly mean
[edit] References
- scurvy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- “scurvy” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001
- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884-1928, and First Supplement, 1933
- Who Named It? last accessed 28-Mar-2007
