scold

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To tell someone angrily that they have done something wrong.

   The mother scolded the child for running into the road.

2. 2
   noun

   A person who is always complaining and finding fault with others.

   Everyone avoided the old scold who criticised everything they did.

Simplified etymology

Scold probably comes from Old Norse skáld, “poet,” perhaps through an intermediate sense of “lampooner.” In early English use the noun often referred to a woman who used ribald language, while the verb had acquired the meaning “chide” by the mid-16th century.

The noun is from Middle English scold(e), skald(e), first attested in the 12th or 13th century (as scold, scolde, skolde, skald). The verb is from Middle English scolden, first attested in the late 1300s. Most dictionaries derive the verb from the noun and say the noun is probably from Old Norse skald (“poet”) (cognate with Icelandic skáld (“poet, scop”)), as skalds sometimes wrote insulting poems, though another view is that the Norse and English words are cognate to each other and to Old High German skeltan (whence Modern German schelten (“to scold, chide”)), Old Dutch skeldan (whence Modern…

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External links

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