Scully

See also: scully

English

Alternative forms

• Sculley

Etymology 1

Reduced Anglicized spelling of Irish Ó Scolaidhe.

Proper noun

Scully (plural Scullys)

1. A surname from Irish.

Derived terms

• Scullyangst

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Scully is the 4060^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 8747 individuals. Scully is most common among White (93.61%) individuals.

Etymology 2

Named after Dana Scully, fictional FBI agent in the American science fiction series The X-Files, who acts as a skeptical foil to the conspiracy theories of fellow agent Fox Mulder.

Verb

Scully

1. (slang, transitive) To be skeptical toward (a person or situation) with ideas that do not coincide with conventional wisdom.
   • 2005, Rhonda Wilcox, Why Buffy matters: the art of Buffy the vampire slayer, page 28:

     When she complains in another episode that Giles is refusing for once to consider a supernatural explanation, she says, "I can't believe that you of all people would Scully me,"

   • 2015, Denny Waxman, The Complete Macrobiotic Diet, →ISBN:

     She Scullied me and I'm sure the word “macrobiotics” never made it into my medical file; it's an unexplained disappearance of cancer.

   • 2019 February 19, Rachel, “How to Talk to Your Hot Gay Crush About Astrology When You Don't Believe In It”, in Autostraddle:

     If you feel strongly about Scullying this situation and avoiding anyone who believes in made-up sky magic, that’s your prerogative, but you should know that you’re preemptively x’ing out a LOT of the queer population you might otherwise click with!

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Scully”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• Cullys