different between scabious vs scabrous

English

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

scabious (comparative more scabious, superlative most scabious)

1. having scabs
2. of or pertaining to scabies

Etymology 2

These plants were once used to treat scabies.

Noun

scabious (plural scabiouses)

1. Any of various herbaceous plants of the genus Scabiosa.
   • 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, XII [Uniform ed., p. 128]:

     The grassy track, so gay with scabious and bedstraw, was snow-white at the bottom of its ruts.

Derived terms

• sweet scabious (Sixalix atropurpurea, syn. Scabiosa atropurpurea)

English

Etymology

From Latin scaber (“scabrous, rough; scabby, mangy, itchy”) (from scab? (“to scratch, scrape, abrade”), from Proto-Indo-European *skab?- (“to scratch”)) + English -ous; compare French scabreux, Late Latin scabr?sus.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ske?b??s/, /?ska-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?skæb??s/, /?ske?-/
• Hyphenation: sca?brous

Adjective

scabrous (comparative more scabrous, superlative most scabrous)

1. Covered with scales or scabs; hence, very coarse or rough.

   Synonyms: scabby, scaly, scurfy; see also Thesaurus:scabby, Thesaurus:rough
2. (figuratively) Disgusting, repellent.

   Synonyms: repulsive, vile; see also Thesaurus:unpleasant
3. (figuratively) Of music, writing, etc.: lacking refinement; unmelodious, unmusical.

   Synonyms: harsh, rough; see also Thesaurus:cacophonous

   • 1693, John Dryden, “The Dedication”, in Juvenal; Persius; John Dryden, [William Congreve, and Nahum Tate], transl., The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], ?OCLC, page xxx:

     [A]s his Verse is ?cabrous, and hobbling, and his Words not every where well cho?en, the purity of Latin being more corrupted, than in the time of Juvenal, and con?equently of Horace, who writ when the Language was in the heighth of its perfection; ?o his diction is hard; his Figures are generally too bold and daring; and his Tropes, particularly his Metaphors, in?ufferably ?train'd.
4. (figuratively) Difficult, thorny, troublesome.
5. (figuratively, chiefly US) Covered with a crust of dirt or grime.

Derived terms

• scabrously
• scabrousness

Related terms

• scab
• scaberulous
• scabies

Translations

Further reading

• “scabrous”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.