Etymograph

English

scrape

Scrape comes from Old Norse skrapa ‘to scrape, scratch’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *skrebʰ- ‘to engrave’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skrebʰ-1‘to engrave’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skrapōną1‘to scrape, scratch’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350skrapa1‘to scrape, scratch’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scrapen1‘to scrape’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1595scrape1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English scrape
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1595, The Life and Death of King Richard the Second: “And he shall spend mine honour with his shame,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skrebʰ-Wiktionary, English scrape‘to engrave’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skrapōnąWiktionary, English scrape‘to scrape, scratch’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350skrapaWiktionary, English scrape‘to scrape, scratch’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scrapenWiktionary, English scrape‘to scrape’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1595scrapeWiktionary, English scrape. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1595, The Life and Death of King Richard the Second: “And he shall spend mine honour with his shame,…”

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *skrebʰ-

Today it means

verb To draw (an object, especially a sharp or angular one), along (something) while exerting pressure.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “scrape”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *skrebʰ- / scrape

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