scar
noun
- area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury
verb
- to form a scar
- to mark the skin permanently
- to affect deeply in a traumatic manner
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /skɑɹ/ / /skɑː(ɹ)/
noun
Etymology: From Latin scarus (“a kind of fish”), from Ancient Greek σκάρος (skáros, “parrot wrasse, Sparisoma cretense, syn. Scarus cretensis”).
- A marine food fish, the scarus or parrotfish (family Scaridae).
verb
Etymology: From Middle English scar, scarre, a conflation of Old French escare (“scab”) (from Late Latin eschara, from Ancient Greek ἐσχάρα (eskhára, “scab left from a burn”), and thus a doublet of eschar) and Middle English skar (“incision, cut, fissure”) (from Old Norse skarð (“notch, chink, gap”), from Proto-Germanic *skardaz (“gap, cut, fragment”)). Akin to Old Norse skor (“notch, score”), Old English sċeard (“gap, cut, notch”). More at shard. Displaced native Old English dolg, dolgswæþ, and wundswaþu (“scar”). Not related to scarify.
- To mark the skin permanently.
“Yet I'll not shed her blood; / Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow.”
- To form a scar.
“Iron and coal were the magnets that drew railways to this land of lovely valleys and silent mountains—for such it was a century-and-a-half ago, before man blackened the valleys with the smoke of his forges, scarred the green hills with his shafts and waste-heaps, and drove the salmon from the quiet Rhondda and the murmuring Taff.”
“And black skin scars badly. Whatʼs left behind stays pink and angry, always.”
- To affect deeply in a traumatic manner.
“Seeing his parents die in a car crash scarred him for life.”