scurvy
SKUR-vee · noun
Origin
Scurvy started as an adjective, from Late Middle English scurvi/scurfi, meaning 'having scurf, scabby.' It traces back to Old English scurf, a word for skin disease and the flakes that fall from it, ultimately from a Proto-Germanic root meaning 'to gnaw' and a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to cut off, sever.'
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Journey
The noun scurvy grew out of that adjective, and once it existed it happened to sound like the Dutch scheurbuik, French scorbut, and Middle Low German schorbūk — all names for the same disease — so English speakers used scurvy to translate them.
Related words
Scurvy shares its root with scurf, the word for flaking, scabby skin that gave rise to it.
More words
From Proto-Germanic