Scrawen

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. An archaic past participle meaning to have scratched or scrawled marks roughly across a surface
2. Archaic term for having scratched or scribbled lines or marks carelessly onto something
3. Used in older English to describe a surface that has been marked with rough, hasty scratches

Etymology: "Scrawen" is the old past participle of a verb meaning to scratch or mark the surface of something, so its adjective sense, "marked with scratches," comes straight from that action. The word is an older relative of "scrawl," which is probably connected to it, though the exact route between the two is not settled. Because the form is a participle, it works as an adjective much as "scratched" does today. A surface that has been scored or scribbled on is described as scrawen, and the same form can be used in the verb sense when the marking is the action being described. It belongs to a group of words built around scraping and scoring, and the many variant spellings in older English show how loosely such forms were once fixed.