Scourge

How to spell scourge

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce scourge

What does scourge mean?

1. nounA person or thing that causes great trouble, suffering, or widespread harm.
2. nounA whip with several knotted cords or thongs, used historically for flogging.
3. verbTo cause great suffering to, or to whip someone severely as punishment.

Scourge in a sentence

• noun

  Poverty remained the chief scourge of the region for decades.

• noun

  The museum displayed a leather scourge once used to punish prisoners.

• verb

  Famine continued to scourge the war-torn country for years.

• noun

  Drought has long been the scourge of farmers across the valley.

• noun

  A heavy leather scourge hung in the castle's display case beside the iron chains.

• verb

  The guards would scourge anyone caught trying to escape.

Where does scourge come from?

Language of origin: French

Scourge came into English in the early 1200s from Anglo-Norman French escorge, a whip, alongside the verb escorgier, to flog. Behind the French lies a Vulgar Latin form built from the Latin prefix ex-, meaning thoroughly or out, joined to corrigia, which literally meant a leather thong, strap, or shoelace; the combined idea was something used to lash hard. The original sense in English was the very physical one of a multi-thonged whip used for punishment, and from there the meaning spread to any agent of severe affliction, such as a plague, a tyrant, or a destructive force. Because the spelling preserves the Old French -ourge ending rather than matching the spoken sound, writers are tempted to drop the silent first u or to render it as scourdge; remembering the buried Latin corrigia, the strap, helps anchor that awkward middle. The same family of punishment words gives English its grim historical phrase the scourge of God, applied to conquerors believed to be sent as divine retribution.

How the word is built

• s- (from Latin ex-, thoroughly)
• -courge (from Latin corrigia: a thong, strap, or whip)