Etymology From Middle English scar, scarre, a conflation of Old French escare (“scab”) (from Late Latin eschara, from Ancient Greek ἐσχάρα (eskhára, “scab left from a burn”), and thus a doublet of eschar) and Middle English skar (“incision, cut, fissure”) (from Old Norse skarð (“notch, chink, gap”), from Proto-Germanic *skardaz (“gap, cut, fragment”)). Akin to Old Norse skor (“notch, score”), Old English sċeard (“gap, cut, notch”). More at shard. Displaced native Old English dolg, dolgswæþ, and wundswaþu (“scar”). Not related to scarify.
1
A permanent mark on the skin, sometimes caused by the healing of a wound.
2
Broadly A permanent negative effect on someone's mind, caused by a traumatic experience.
Thus, it is wise to avoid cultivating an emotional scar, as it can play havoc with your happiness and success.2011, O. P. Sharma, Be a Winner, →ISBN:
3
Any permanent mark resulting from damage.
Her age-old weapons, flood and fire, left scars on the canyon which time will never efface.1961, Dorothy Jensen Neal, Captive mountain waters: a story of pipelines and people, page 29:
But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please. You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, “you are free to compete with all the others,” and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates.1965 June 4, Johnson, Lyndon B., Howard University Commencement Address:
1 more example
There is a real scar on the landscape, but it reminds me exactly of scenes I photographed from the construction of High Speed 1 in Kent and Essex, and of the Norton Bridge flyover in Staffordshire. Scars heal, and the replanting and rewilding that Penny had shown me at Cubbington display the early stages.2022 March 23, Paul Bigland, “HS2 is just 'passing through'”, in RAIL, number 953, page 44:
Etymology From Middle English scar, scarre, a conflation of Old French escare (“scab”) (from Late Latin eschara, from Ancient Greek ἐσχάρα (eskhára, “scab left from a burn”), and thus a doublet of eschar) and Middle English skar (“incision, cut, fissure”) (from Old Norse skarð (“notch, chink, gap”), from Proto-Germanic *skardaz (“gap, cut, fragment”)). Akin to Old Norse skor (“notch, score”), Old English sċeard (“gap, cut, notch”). More at shard. Displaced native Old English dolg, dolgswæþ, and wundswaþu (“scar”). Not related to scarify.
1
To mark the skin permanently.
Yet I'll not shed her blood; / Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
2
To form a scar.
Iron and coal were the magnets that drew railways to this land of lovely valleys and silent mountains—for such it was a century-and-a-half ago, before man blackened the valleys with the smoke of his forges, scarred the green hills with his shafts and waste-heaps, and drove the salmon from the quiet Rhondda and the murmuring Taff.1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 157:
And black skin scars badly. Whatʼs left behind stays pink and angry, always.2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 161:
3
Figuratively To affect deeply in a traumatic manner.
Seeing his parents die in a car crash scarred him for life.
Etymology From Middle English scarre, skarr, skerre, sker, a borrowing from Old Norse sker (“an isolated rock in the sea; skerry”). Cognate with Icelandic sker, Norwegian skjær, Swedish skär, Danish skær, German Schäre. Doublet of skerry and scaur.
1
A cliff or rock outcrop.
O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, / And thinner, clearer, farther going! / O sweet and far from cliff and scar / The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!1847, Tennyson, “The Bugle Song”, in The Princess:
All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another. “Hi!” it said. “Wait a minute!” The undergrowth at the side of the scar was shaken and a multitude of raindrops fell pattering.1954, William Golding, chapter 1, in Lord of the Flies, Penguin:
2
A rock in the sea breaking out from the surface of the water.
3
A bare rocky place on the side of a hill or mountain.
Derived terms
Preston-under-Scar
scar
noun
Etymology From Latin scarus (“a kind of fish”), from Ancient Greek σκάρος (skáros, “parrot wrasse, Sparisoma cretense, syn. Scarus cretensis”).
1
A marine food fish, the scarus or parrotfish (family Scaridae).