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scruple

UK/ˈskɹuːpəl/ US/ˈskɹupəl/ uncommon obsolete
noun (3) verb (3)

noun

1.

a unit of apothecary weight equal to 20 grains

2.
3.

an ethical or moral principle that inhibits action

verb

1.

hesitate on moral grounds

  • “The man scrupled to perjure himself”
2.

raise scruples

  • “He lied and did not even scruple about it”
3.

have doubts about

Origin

From Old French scrupule, from Latin scrūpulus (“(literally) a small sharp or pointed stone; uneasiness of mind, anxiety, doubt, trouble; scruple”) and scrūpulum (“one twenty-fourth of an ounce”), diminutives of scrūpus (“a rough or sharp stone; anxiety, uneasiness”); perhaps akin to Ancient Greek σκύρος (skúros, “the chippings of stone”), from ξυρόν (xurón, “razor”), from ξύω (xúō, “to scrape”), from Proto-Indo-European *ksew-. Doublet of escropulo and escrupulo.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.