scathe

Origin

From Middle English scathen, skathen (“to harm; to cause loss; to assail, attack; to make war on; to defeat”) [and other forms], from Old Norse skaða (“to damage, harm; to hurt, injure”), from Proto-Germanic *skaþōną (“to damage, harm; to injure”) (whence Old English sceaþian, scaþian (“to harm, hurt, injure, scathe”)), from *skaþô (“damage, scathe; one who causes damage, injurer”, noun); see further at etymology 1. Sense 2 (“to harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source”) appears to derive from Paradise Lost by the English poet John Milton (1608-1674), perhaps influenced by scorch: see the 1667 quotation. Cognates * Albanian shkathët (“adept, clever, skilful”) * Danish skade (“to hurt, injure”) * Dutch schaden (“to injure”) * Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌸𐌾𐌰𐌽 (skaþjan, “to harm, injure; to do wrong”) * Ancient Greek ἀσκηθής (askēthḗs, “unhurt”) * Old Frisian skathia (“to injure”) * Old High German skadôn (Middle High German schaden, German schaden (“to damage, harm, hurt; to be harmful”)) * Old Norse skeðja (“to hurt”) * Old Saxon scaðon (“to slander”) * Swedish skada (“to hurt, injure”)