Etymology

Old Scratch

Today it means: The Devil. Full definition →

Middle English scrat ← Old Norse skratti
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The story

  1. Old Norse · derived fromskratti“a type of demon”
  2. Middle English · derived fromscrat
  3. English todayOld Scratch

Probably an alteration of scrat, from Middle English scrat, skratt, scratte, ultimately from Old Norse skratti (“a type of demon”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishscrat all →

scrat

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.