scourge

Meaning

Noun

1. (historical) A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash.
2. (figuratively) A person or thing regarded as an agent of divine punishment.
3. (figuratively) A source of persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble, such as a cruel ruler, disease, pestilence, or war.

Verb

1. (transitive) To strike (a person, an animal, etc.) with a scourge (noun sense 1) or whip; to flog, to whip.
2. (transitive) To drive, or force (a person, an animal, etc.) to move, with or as if with a scourge or whip.
3. (figuratively, transitive) To punish (a person, an animal, etc.); to chastise.
4. (figuratively, transitive) To cause (someone or something) persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble; to afflict, to torment.
5. (Scotland, figuratively, transitive) Of a crop or a farmer: to deplete the fertility of (land or soil).

Synonyms

whip

lash

flog

plague

flagellate

beat

chastise

punish

curse

thrash

flagellum

ravage

switch

calamity

lay waste to

terror

desolate

threat

devastate

spank

waste

discipline

cane

bane

trounce

harass

torment

horsewhip

flail

stick

nemesis

penalize

knout

epidemic

strap

drub

disaster

bully

cowhide

infest

correct

buff

affliction

horse-whip

cord

horror

hit

infliction

injury

condemn

Translations

Geißel

azotar

fléau

plaag

frustare

castigare

flagelo

fouet

frusta

azote

flagello

sferza

geißeln

gesel

zweep

Pronounced as (IPA)

/skɜːd͡ʒ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: scourge

Cognate with French: escourgée

Cognate with Italian: scuriada

Inherited from Middle English: scourgen

In summary

From Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”), and then either:
* from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, escurge, or Old French scurge, escourge, escorge, escorgiee, escurge (modern French escourgée (“(archaic) whip made of leather strips”)), either:
** from Vulgar Latin *excoriāta (“strip of hide; a scourge”), from Late Latin excoriāre, the present active infinitive of excoriō (“to strip the skin from, to skin”), from Latin ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + corium (“skin; hide, leather”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”)); or
** from Latin ex- (intensifying prefix) + corrigia (“a whip”) (from corrigō (“to make right, correct; to reform”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to righten; to straighten”)); or
* from Middle English scourgen (verb) (see etymology 2).
Cognates
Italian scuriada, scuriata