descale

verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — scale sits at #2,554Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: descaling

To descale is to remove the hard chalky deposit left by water. Descale the kettle, descale the shower head.

The deposit is limescale from hard water, and any weak acid will dissolve it. To descale a kettle regularly saves electricity as well as the element.

Definitions of descale

1verbdescaleTo remove the hard chalky deposit left by water.C2
“Vinegar will descale a kettle overnight for almost nothing.”

descale is a cleaning.

Where it comes from

Middle English
scale
English
scale
English, today
descale

Built from

scālae · Latin — a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder
scandō · Latin — to climb

From de- + scale. scale comes from Middle English scale. From Middle English scale, from Latin scāla, usually in plural scālae (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder”), for skand-slā, from scandō (“to climb”); see scan, ascend, descend, etc. a doublet of scala.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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