"Old Scratch" meaning in English

See Old Scratch in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

Etymology: Probably an alteration of scrat, from Middle English scrat, skratt, scratte, ultimately from Old Norse skratti (“a type of demon”). Etymology templates: {{m|en|scrat}} scrat, {{der|en|enm|scrat}} Middle English scrat, {{m|enm|skratt}} skratt, {{m|enm|scratte}} scratte, {{der|en|non|skratti||a type of demon}} Old Norse skratti (“a type of demon”) Head templates: {{en-proper noun|head=Old Scratch}} Old Scratch
  1. (chiefly Midland US, Southern US) The Devil. Wikipedia link: Old Scratch Tags: Southern-US Categories (topical): Theology Synonyms: Old Nick, Old Serpent, Satan
    Sense id: en-Old_Scratch-en-name-5u61vpvU Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Midland US English, Southern US English

Download JSON data for Old Scratch meaning in English (1.9kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "scrat"
      },
      "expansion": "scrat",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "enm",
        "3": "scrat"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English scrat",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "skratt"
      },
      "expansion": "skratt",
      "name": "m"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "scratte"
      },
      "expansion": "scratte",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "non",
        "3": "skratti",
        "4": "",
        "5": "a type of demon"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Norse skratti (“a type of demon”)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Probably an alteration of scrat, from Middle English scrat, skratt, scratte, ultimately from Old Norse skratti (“a type of demon”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "Old Scratch"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Scratch",
      "name": "en-proper noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Midland US English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Southern US English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Theology",
          "orig": "en:Theology",
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            "Religion",
            "All topics",
            "Culture",
            "Fundamental",
            "Society"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The Devil."
      ],
      "id": "en-Old_Scratch-en-name-5u61vpvU",
      "links": [
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          "Devil"
        ],
        [
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          "w:The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language"
        ],
        [
          "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt",
          "w:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "chiefly Midland US",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly Midland US, Southern US) The Devil."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "Old Nick"
        },
        {
          "word": "Old Serpent"
        },
        {
          "word": "Satan"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Southern-US"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Old Scratch"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Old Scratch"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "expansion": "scrat",
      "name": "m"
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    },
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      "args": {
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      "expansion": "skratt",
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "scratte"
      },
      "expansion": "scratte",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "non",
        "3": "skratti",
        "4": "",
        "5": "a type of demon"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Norse skratti (“a type of demon”)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Probably an alteration of scrat, from Middle English scrat, skratt, scratte, ultimately from Old Norse skratti (“a type of demon”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "Old Scratch"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Scratch",
      "name": "en-proper noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proper nouns",
        "English terms derived from Middle English",
        "English terms derived from Old Norse",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Midland US English",
        "Southern US English",
        "en:Theology"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The Devil."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
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          "Devil"
        ],
        [
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          "w:The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language"
        ],
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          "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt",
          "w:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "chiefly Midland US",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly Midland US, Southern US) The Devil."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "Old Nick"
        },
        {
          "word": "Old Serpent"
        },
        {
          "word": "Satan"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Southern-US"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Old Scratch"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Old Scratch"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (82c8ff9 and f4967a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.