Etymology

scree

S1C3R1E1E1

Today it means: Loose stony debris on a slope. Full definition →

First used early 18th c.Old Norse skriða ← Proto-Germanic *skrīþaną ← Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreyt-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

scree · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)kreyt-
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*skrīþaną“to crawl; to glide; to walk”
  3. Old Norse · derived fromskriða“landslide, landslip”
  4. English todayscree

Probably a back-formation from screes, from Old Norse skriða (“landslide, landslip”); compare skríða (“to glide”) (from Proto-Germanic *skrīþaną (“to crawl; to glide; to walk”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreyt-, *(s)ker- (“to bend, turn”)). The word is cognate with Icelandic skriða (“avalanche; landslide, landslip; steep mountain- or hillside made up of gravel and loose rocks”).

scree · noun, verb2

  1. Old English · inherited fromsċrēon
  2. English todayscree

Onomatopoeic. However, some connection to a lost dialect term (Old Norse influence? cf. shriek, screech) from Old English sċrēon is not impossible.

scree · verb3

A variant of screed.

scree · noun4

Apparently from screen.

Words from the same roots

Old Norseskriða all →

scriddan

Proto-Germanic*skrīþaną all →

shrithe

First known use, by meaning

  • from early 18th c. Loose stony debris on a slope.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.