Noun: scold
| Singular | scold |
| Plural | scolds |
Sample Sentences
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A ſclaunderous tunge, a tunge of a ſkolde,
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Worketh more miſchiefe than can be tolde;
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That, if I wiſt not to be controlde,
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Yet ſomwhat to ſay I dare well be bolde, [c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.]
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“Well, I won’t have it, and that’s enough.” She laughed, for her voice had a little been that of the professional scold. [1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part II, XVIII [Uniform ed., p. 196]]
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Near the pond was the ducking-stool where many a village scold had her tongue temporarily stilled. [1980, Robert Dougall, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 379:]
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Consider the contrast with the United States, where deficit scolds dominated Beltway discourse in 2010–2011 but never managed to dictate the terms of political debate […] [2015 September 14, Paul Krugman, “Labour's dead centre [print version: International New York Times, 15 September 2015, p. 9]”, in The New York Times:]
Nouns inflected like scold
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
The noun is from Middle English scold(e), skald(e), first attested in the 12th or 13th century (as scold, scolde, skolde, skald). The verb is from Middle English scolden, first attested in the late 1300s. Most dictionaries derive the verb from the noun and say the noun is probably from Old Norse skald (“poet”) (cognate with Icelandic skáld (“poet, scop”)), as skalds sometimes wrote insulting poems, though another view is that the Norse and English words are cognate to each other and to Old High German skeltan (whence Modern German schelten (“to scold, chide”)), Old Dutch skeldan (whence Modern Dutch schelden (“to scold, berate”)), all inherited from Proto-Germanic *skeldaną (“scold”). See: Old Norse Nouns '
skald', Icelandic Nouns '
skáld'.