scathe

EnglishEdit

From Middle English scathe, from Old English sceaþa (also sceaþu (“scathe, harm, injury”), from Proto-Germanic *skaþô (“damage, scathe”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kēt- (“damage, harm”). Cognate with Scots skaith.

scathe (countable and uncountable, plural scathes)

For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:scathe.

harm; damage; injury; hurt; misfortune

From Middle English scathen, skathen, from Old English sceaþian, scaþan (“to scathe, hurt, harm, injure”) and Old Norse skaða (“to hurt”), both from Proto-Germanic *skaþōną (“to injure”). Cognate with Scots skaith, Danish skade, Dutch schaden, German schaden, Swedish skada; compare Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌸𐌾𐌰𐌽 (skaþjan), Old Norse skeðja (“to hurt”). Compare Ancient Greek ἀσκηθής (askēthḗs, “unhurt”), Albanian shkathët (“skillful, adept, clever”).

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scathe (third-person singular simple present scathes, present participle scathing, simple past and past participle scathed)

To injure or harm.
To blast; scorch; wither.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
  As when heaven's fire / Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines.
- 1819, Washington Irving, The Broken Heart:
  Strokes of calamity that scathe and scorch the soul.

injure