Scorchen

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An old-fashioned past participle meaning that something has been burned or browned on its surface by intense heat
2. Describing a surface that has been singed or blackened by fire or strong heat, as in an older form of the verb scorch
3. Referring to something that has been dried, withered, or marked by burning heat, a term from earlier English usage

Etymology: "Scorchen" is an old spelling of "scorch", found in Middle English, when English spelling was not standardized and the final "-en" was a common verb ending. The root "scorch" appears to be a Middle English word, and its origin is uncertain. One proposal links it to Old French "escorcher", meaning "to flay" or "strip the skin", which came from Latin "excorticare", "to strip off the bark", from "cortex", "bark". If that link holds, the word began as a term for removing an outer layer and only later came to mean burning the surface of something. Other possible sources have been suggested, and none is settled. The "-en" ending is the same one found in other older verbs such as "waxen" and "harden".