"S" Word Origins

scumbucket

Origin

Shitgibbon compound of scum + bucket

scumhole

Origin

From scum + hole.

scumminess

Origin

From scummy + -ness.

scummy

Origin

From scum + -y.

scundered

Origin

Alteration of scunnered.

scunge

Origin

Probably related to scrounge.

scup

Origin

Shortened form of Narragansett mishcùp (“porgy”) or its plural mishcùppaûog. The singular was also borrowed as mishcup, while another shortening of the plural yields the synonym paugie. The word was also borrowed as scuppaug.

scupper

Origin

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English scope (“scoop”) or Dutch schop (“shovel”) + -er; or from Dutch scheppen (“to draw off”).

scurf

Origin

From scurf (“skin disease causing scabs or scales; flakes of skin that fall off due to a skin disease, etc.”), from Old English scurf, from Proto-Germanic *skurf- (“to gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”). Cognate with Dutch schurft, German Schorf, Danish skurv, Swedish skorv.

scurrility

Origin

From scurril(ous) + -ity, from Latin scurrilitas.

scurrilous

Origin

From Latin scurrīlis (“buffoon-like”) + -ous, from scurra (“a buffoon”).

scurry

Origin

Probably a shortening of "hurry-scurry," a rhyming reduplication of "hurry."

scurrying

Origin

From scurry + -ing.

scurvy

Old English

From Late Middle English forms of "scurfy" (having scurf, or flaky skin), from "scurf," a skin condition causing flakes — ultimately from Old English scurf.

scut

Origin

From Middle English scut (“hare”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Middle English scut, scute (“short”), possibly from Old French escorter, escurter, or Latin excurtāre, scurtāre, from curtō (“to cut short, shorten”), from curtus (“short; shortened”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”)) + -ō. A derivation from Old Norse skut, skutr (“stern of a boat”), or Icelandic skott (“animal's tail”) is thought to be unlikely. As to sense 3 (“the female pudenda, the vulva”), see the letter of 5 June 1875 from Joseph Crosby to Joseph Parker Norris published in One Touch of Shakespeare (1986).

scutch

Origin

From Middle English *scucchen, from Anglo-Norman escucher, from Vulgar Latin *excuticāre.

scuttle

Latin

From Old English scutel ("dish, platter"), ultimately from Latin scutella; the "sink a ship" and "scurry" senses developed separately in Middle English.

scuttlebutt

Origin

From scuttle ("to cut a hole in") + butt ("wooden cask"). Sailors gathered around the ship's water cask to drink and gossip, similar to the modern "water cooler talk."

scuzz

Origin

Back-formation from scuzzy.

scuzzball

Origin

From scuzz + -ball.

scuzzbucket

Origin

Shitgibbon compound of scuzz + bucket.

Scylla

Ancient Greek

From Latin Scylla, from Ancient Greek Skylla.

scyphistoma

Origin

From Ancient Greek σκύφος (skúphos, “cup”) + στόμα (stóma, “mouth”).

scythe

Latin

From Old English sithe/sigthe ("sickle"), related to the Proto-Germanic root for "saw." The spelling with a silent "c" was added later by mistaken association with Latin scindere ("to cut").

SDK

English

An initialism of software development kit.

SDS

English

An initialism, most commonly of safety data sheet.

se

Chinese

From Mandarin 瑟 (sè), the name of the instrument in Chinese for over two thousand years.

se acabó

Spanish

From Spanish acabar, meaning to finish or end, with the reflexive se and the past tense form acabó, so literally it finished itself.

sea

Old English

From Old English sæ, from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "body of water."

seabed

Origin

From sea + bed.

seabee

Origin

Spelling out of the initials CB, for construction battalion, with the spelling probably influenced by the words sea (patrolled by the Navy) and bee (a symbol of industriousness).

seaboard

Origin

From an earlier form "sea-bord," from sea + board (in the sense of "side" or "edge").

seacoal

Origin

From sea + coal.

seacoast

Origin

From Middle English see-cost, see-coste, see coost, equivalent to sea + coast. Compare West Frisian seekoast (“seacoast”), Dutch zeekust (“seacoast”), German Seeküste (“seacoast”).

seadog

Origin

From sea + dog.

seafarer

Origin

From Middle English *se-farere (suggested by se-farende, sa farinde (“sea-faring”)) equivalent to sea + farer (“traveler”) and to seafare + -er. Cognate with Middle Dutch seevarer, whence Modern Dutch zeevaarder (“seafarer”), West Frisian seefarder (“seafarer”), German Seefahrer (“seafarer”), Swedish sjöfarare (“seafarer”).

seafaring

Old English

From sea + faring ("travelling"), from Old English sǣ-līþende.

seafood

Origin

From sea + food.

seagoing

Origin

From sea + going.

seagull

Origin

From sea + gull.

seahawk

Origin

From sea + hawk.

seal

Latin

From Old English seolh (the animal) and, separately, from Old French seel/Latin sigillum (the stamp sense) — two originally distinct words that now share the same spelling.

seam

Old English

From Old English sēam ("seam"), from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "that which is sewn."

seaman

Old English

From Old English sǣmann, equivalent to sea + man.

seamless

Origin

From seam + -less.

seamstress

Origin

From "seamster" (an old, originally gender-neutral word for someone who sews) plus the feminine suffix -ess.

Seamus

Irish

Anglicised form of Irish Séamas, itself derived from the English name James.

seamy

Origin

From seam + -y.