Other forms: scourges
A scourge is something that brings widespread suffering. The scourge of malaria, a scourge on the land, scourge of the seas.
It was a whip before it was a metaphor, and the older sense is the reason the word feels like a punishment rather than a misfortune. The construction is the scourge of, and it attaches to diseases, pests and occasionally to people.
1nounscourgeSomething that brings widespread suffering.
“Malaria has been the scourge of the region for centuries.”
scourge is an affliction.
Old French escorge meant a whip, from Latin excoriare, to flay, from corium, hide or leather.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker-
Middle English
scourge — a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine
English, today
scourge
From Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”), and then either:
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA