scurf
/skɜː(ɹ)f/ noun
Forms scurfs
- noun A skin disease.
- noun The flakes of skin that fall off as a result of a skin disease.
- noun Any crust-like formations on the skin, or in general.
- noun (figurative) The foul remains of anything adherent.
- noun (botany) Minute membranous scales on the surface of some leaves, as in the goosefoot.
- noun (obsolete, slang) A low, mean person.
- noun A grey bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus).
Synonyms
Etymology
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Thin dry scales or scabs upon the body; especially, thin scales exfoliated from the cuticle, particularly of the scalp; dandruff.
- noun Hence, the foul remains of anything adherent.
Etymology [AS. scurf, sceorf, or from Scand.; cf. Sw. skorf, Dan. skurv, Icel. skurfur, D. schurft, G. schorf; all akin to AS. scurf, and to AS. sceorfan to scrape, to gnaw, G. schürfen to scrape, and probably also to E. scrape. Cf. Scurvy.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “scurf”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details