Scalds

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cause damage or injury to the skin by contact with very hot liquid or steam
2. To burn or injure body tissue through exposure to heated water or vapor
3. To inflict a painful burn on the skin using scalding hot fluids or steam

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "scald" is that its ancestor meant "bathe in hot water," and its Latin root contains a word for "hot" that also gave English "caldron" and "cauldron" through a different route. The Late Latin "excaldare" combined "ex-" with "caldus," a form of "calidus," meaning "hot." Old French then reshaped it as "escalder" and "eschauder," and Middle English borrowed the form "scalden," which carried that same sense of heat applied to water or food. A second, less expected thread runs through the Norse side of the family. Old Norse "skalda" meant "to rot, fall off, of hair," and it is linked to "skalli," meaning "baldness." English picked up "scalle," a word for a scabby hair infection or rash. Through that connection, the sense of blistering skin may have blended with the heat sense, which is why the modern verb can describe a burn from hot liquid or steam.

Synonyms: burns, blisters, sizzles

Antonyms: cools, soothes