Scaddle

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. A Scots dialect verb meaning to scare or frighten something off, especially livestock or birds
2. Used in Scottish speech to describe frightening a creature so that it runs off in alarm
3. An old regional word for startling or driving away an animal by causing it to take fright

Etymology: Old Norse "skaðull" meant "harmful," and Middle English "scathel" carried the same sense, which is where this word's family enters English. The root reaches back to Proto-Germanic "*skaþulaz," also meaning "harmful," so the idea of damage has been attached to this word-stem since before the Germanic languages split apart. The same root turns up in other early Germanic languages. Gothic had "skaþuls," meaning "injurious" or "wicked," and Old High German had "scadel," meaning "injurious, harmful." Its English relative is built from "scathe," meaning harm or injury, plus the suffix "-el," which gives the adjective its harmful sense. Scaddle appears to be a form of this same adjective.