Etymology
1. From Middle English scathen, skathen (“to harm; to cause loss; to assail, attack; to make war on; to defeat”) [and other forms], from Old Norse skaða (“to damage, harm; to hurt, injure”), from Proto-Germanic *skaþōną (“to damage, harm; to injure”) (whence Old English sceaþian, scaþian (“to harm, hurt, injure, scathe”)), from *skaþô (“damage, scathe; one who causes damage, injurer”, noun); see further at etymology 1.
2. Sense 2 (“to harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source”) appears to derive from Paradise Lost by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674), perhaps influenced by scorch: see the 1667 quotation.
3. Cognates
4. * Albanian shkathët (“adept, clever, skilful”)
5. * Danish skade (“to hurt, injure”)
6. * Dutch schaden (“to injure”)
7. * Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌸𐌾𐌰𐌽 (skaþjan, “to harm, injure; to do wrong”)
8. * Ancient Greek ἀσκηθής (askēthḗs, “unhurt”)
9. * Old Frisian skathia (“to injure”)
10. * Old High German skadôn (Middle High German schaden, German schaden (“to damage, harm, hurt; to be harmful”))
11. * Old Norse skeðja (“to hurt”)
12. * Old Saxon scaðon (“to slander”)
13. * Swedish skada (“to hurt, injure”) See: Proto-Germanic '
*skaþōną', Old English '
sceaþian', Danish '
skade', Dutch '
schaden', Old Frisian 'skathia', Middle High German '
schaden', German, old spelling '
schaden', Swedish '
skada'.
Verbs referencing "scathe"
Alemannic German
schade, Dutch
schaden, Icelandic
skaða, Swedish
skada, German, Pennsylvania
schadde.