Scarre

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A permanent mark left on the skin after a wound or sore has healed ; a steep, bare cliff or rocky outcrop on a hillside or coast
2. The lasting trace of a healed injury on the skin ; a sheer rock face or jagged crag rising above the surrounding land
3. An archaic spelling for the mark a healed cut leaves behind ; a steep, rugged rock wall, often along the edge of a sea or valley

Etymology: In Middle English, "scarre" was a spelling shared by three unrelated words: a mark on the skin, a rock in the sea, and a fish. The skin sense came from two sources that merged. One was Old French "escare", meaning scab, which descended from Late Latin "eschara" and Greek "eskhara", a scab left by a burn. The other was Middle English "skar", meaning cut or fissure, from Old Norse "skarð", a notch or gap. Their blend displaced the native Old English "dolg" and "wundswaþu". The sea-rock sense came from Old Norse "sker", an isolated rock in the sea, and it is a doublet of "skerry" and "scaur". The fish sense came from Latin "scarus", which was taken from Greek "skaros", the name of the parrot wrasse.