scurvy

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.'

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.

Scurvy shares its root with scurf, the word for flaking, scabby skin that gave rise to it.