scourge means A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash. It carries an Arena rating of 1776, earned across 20 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, scourge ranks #102 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #486 of 17,093 for Most Storied Words, #570 of 17,115 for Most Vivid Words, #681 of 17,118 for Scariest Words.
scourge is pronounced /skɜːd͡ʒ/.
Why “scourge” is a great word
A person or thing regarded as an agent of divine punishment or a source of widespread and persistent suffering, such as a cruel ruler, disease, or war. From Middle English scourge, from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, from Vulgar Latin *excoriāta ("strip of hide; a scourge"), from Late Latin excoriāre ("to strip the skin from"), from Latin ex- ("out") + corium ("skin, hide"). Unlike "bane," which implies a cause of ruin or quiet torment, or "affliction," which describes a general state of distress, scourge is an active, lashing force, often seen as cosmic retribution made manifest. It is the locust swarm darkening the sky, the tyrant whose decrees echo like cracks of a whip, and the fever that burns through a city with biblical indifference—the terrible shape we give to the formless fury of the world, a pain not endured but administered, as if the world itself were being skinned under a higher hand.
Etymology
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
noun
- A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash.e.g.“He flogged him with a scourge.”
- A person or thing regarded as an agent of divine punishment.
- A source of persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble, such as a cruel ruler, disease, pestilence, or war.e.g.“Graffiti is the scourge of building owners everywhere.”
verb
- To strike (a person, an animal, etc.) with a scourge (noun etymology 1 sense 1) or whip; to flog, to whip.
- To drive, or force (a person, an animal, etc.) to move, with or as if with a scourge or whip.
- To punish (a person, an animal, etc.); to chastise.
- To cause (someone or something) persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble; to afflict, to torment.
- Of a crop or a farmer: to deplete the fertility of (land or soil).
Words closest in meaning
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