scurf
noun1
A grey bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus).
scurf
noun/skɜː(ɹ)f/
Etymology From scurf (“skin disease causing scabs or scales; flakes of skin that fall off due to a skin disease, etc.”), from Old English scurf, from Proto-Germanic *skurf- (“to gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”). Cognate with Dutch schurft, German Schorf, Danish skurv, Swedish skorv.
1
A skin disease.
2
The flakes of skin that fall off as a result of a skin disease.
3
Any crust-like formations on the skin, or in general.
- There ſtood a Hill not far whoſe frieſly top / Belch'd fire and rowling ſmoak; the reſt entire / Shon with a gloſſie ſcurff, undoubted ſign / That in his womb was hid metallic Ore,1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 670–673:
4
Figuratively The foul remains of anything adherent.
- The Scurf is worn away, of each committed Crime1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 392, line 1011:
- Derived terms
- silver scurf, scurvy, sea scurf
- Related terms
- scarf