scourge

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /skɜːd͡ʒ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /skɝd͡ʒ/
  • (US, also) IPA^(key): /skɔɹd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d͡ʒ

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English scourge, from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, escourge, escurge, from Anglo-Norman escorger (“to whip”), from Vulgar Latin *excorrigiō, from Latin ex- (“thoroughly”) + corrigia (“thong, whip”).

Noun

scourge (plural scourges)

1. A source of persistent trouble such as pestilence that causes pain and suffering or widespread destruction.

   Graffiti is the scourge of building owners everywhere.

   • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume II, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, →OCLC, page 30:

     On you it rests, whether I quit for ever the neighbourhood of man, and lead a harmless life, or become the scourge of your fellow-creatures, and the author of your own speedy ruin.

2. A means to inflict such pain or destruction.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     What scourge for perjury / Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?

   • 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8838, page 11:

     America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 ([…]): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.

   1. A whip, often of leather and often multi-tailed.

      He flogged him with a scourge.

      • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:

        Up to coach then goes / The observed maid, takes both the scourge and reins.

      • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 99:

        These men lashed themselves and each other unmercifully with knotted leather scourges until the blood ran, two or three times daily.

Hyponyms

• knout
• cat
• cat o' nine tails
• cat-o'-nine-tails

Translations

persistent pest, illness, or source of trouble

• Arabic: وباء‎ (ar), بَلْوَى‎ (balwā)
• Armenian: պատուհաս (hy) (patuhas)
• Bashkir: бәлә (bälä)
• Bulgarian: беда (bg) f (beda), бедствие (bg) n (bedstvie)
• Danish: svøbe c
• Dutch: plaag (nl), schrik (nl), gesel (nl) m
• Finnish: vitsaus (fi), maanvaiva, riesa (fi)
• French: fléau (fr) m
• German: Plage (de), Geißel (de), Last (de) f, Bürde (de) f, Heimsuchung (de) f, Pest (de) f
• Greek: μάστιγα (el) f (mástiga)
• Hebrew: פגע‎ (he) m (péga), מפגע‎ m (mifgá)
• Irish: sciúirse m
• Italian: piaga (it) f, flagello (it) m
• Latin: pestis f
• Macedonian: по́мор m (pómor), не́среќа f (nésreḱa)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: svøpe (no) m

• Polish: bicz boży m
• Portuguese: flagelo (pt) m, tormento (pt) m
• Romanian: flagel (ro)
• Russian: бич (ru) m (bič), бе́дствие (ru) n (bédstvije), беда́ (ru) f (bedá), ка́ра (ru) f (kára)
• Spanish: azote (es) m, flagelo (es) m
• Swedish: gissel (sv) n, plåga (sv) c

means to inflict such pain

• Czech: zhouba f
• Finnish: kirot pl

a whip often of leather

• Arabic: سوط‎
• Bashkir: ҡамсы (qamsı)
• Bulgarian: бич (bg) m (bič), камшик (bg) m (kamšik)
• Czech: bič (cs) m, důtky, karabáč (cs) m
• Danish: svøbe c
• Dutch: gesel (nl)
• Esperanto: skurĝo
• Finnish: piiska (fi), ruoska (fi)
• French: écourgée (fr) f, fouet (fr) m
• German: Geißel (de), Peitsche (de) f
• Hebrew: שוט‎ (he) m (shot), מגלב‎ (he) m (maglév)
• Irish: sciúirse m
• Latin: verber n
• Macedonian: бич m (bič), ка́мшик m (kámšik)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: svøpe (no) m

• Portuguese: flagelo (pt) m, açoite (pt) m
• Russian: бич (ru) m (bič), плеть (ru) f (pletʹ)
• Spanish: flagelo (es) m
• Swedish: gissel (sv) n

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle English scourgen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

scourge (third-person singular simple present scourges, present participle scourging, simple past and past participle scourged)

1. To strike with a scourge; to flog.
   • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Slavery in Massachusetts:

     If they vote, they do not send men to Congress on errands of humanity; but while their brothers and sisters are being scourged and hung for loving liberty, while—I might here insert all that slavery implies and is,—it is the mismanagement of wood and iron and stone and gold which concerns them.

Synonyms

• (to whip or scourge): Thesaurus:whip

Translations

to strike with a scourge

• Bulgarian: бичувам (bg) (bičuvam)
• Danish: plage (da)
• Dutch: geselen (nl)
• Esperanto: skurĝi
• French: fouetter (fr)
• German: plagen (de), geißeln (de), heimsuchen (de), peitschen (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: μαστίζω (mastízō)

• Hebrew: הלקה‎ (hilká)
• Indonesian: mencambuki (id)
• Italian: flagellare (it)
• Macedonian: би́чува (bíčuva), камши́кува (kamšíkuva)
• Portuguese: flagelar (pt)
• Russian: бичева́ть (ru) impf (bičevátʹ), бить пле́тью impf (bitʹ plétʹju)
• Spanish: azotar (es), flagelar (es)

See also

• Scourge in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “scourge”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• scrouge