different between shabby vs scabby

English

Etymology

From shab (“scab”) +? -y, or directly from an alteration of scabby. Cognate with Scots shabby (“in poor health, ill”), Dutch schabbig (“poor, needy, shabby”), Middle Low German schabbich (“miserable”), German schäbig (“shabby”), Swedish skabbig (“scabby”), Swedish sjabbig (“shabby, mangy, scruffy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æb.i/
• Rhymes: -æbi

Adjective

shabby (comparative shabbier, superlative shabbiest)

1. Torn or worn; unkempt.

2. Clothed with ragged, much worn, or soiled garments.

3. Mean; paltry; despicable.

Derived terms

• shabby-genteel
• shabby chic

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English scabby, scabbie, equivalent to scab +? -y. Doublet of shabby.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?skæb.i/
• Rhymes: -æbi

Adjective

scabby (comparative scabbier, superlative scabbiest)

1. Affected with scabs; full of scabs.
   • 1590, 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

     Her wrizled skin, as rough as maple rind,
     So scabby was, that would have loath'd all womankind.

2. Diseased with the scab, or mange; mangy.
3. (printing) Having a blotched, uneven appearance.
4. Injured by the attachment of barnacles to the carapace of a shell.

Synonyms

• (affected with scabs): reef, scabrous; see also Thesaurus:scabby

Translations

References

• scabby in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• scabby in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.