Hello liberty and thank you for your question.
From my research we can make a "time line" for the word 'scab' like
this:
13th century "skabbr" Old Norse. crust that forms on top of a wound.
http://www.takeourword.com/et_q-s.html
16th century "a low or despicable person" (It most likely stems from
the implication that such a scoundrel might well be afflicted with
syphilis, which in its advanced stages causes a "scabby" skin
condition.)
http://www.word-detective.com/041899.html
1700's "any worker who refused to join an organized trade union
movement"
http://www.word-detective.com/041899.html
1811 Shorter Oxford says it originated in US "A workman who refuses to
join an organized movement on behal of his trade"
http://workers.labor.net.au/85/c_historicalfeature_scabs.html
1905 Entered English usage meaning to behave as a scab or blackleg.
==============================================
Someone else asked a similar question to yours:
"I am looking for the origin and the first time that the word scab was
first officially recognized, scab being a person who crosses the
picket line to work while everyone is on strike. Can you help?
Scab in the `strike-breaker' sense is directly related to scab `crust
which forms over a wound.' The word is descended from an Old English
source with influence from a Scandinavian source. The Old English word
was sceabb `scab' (source of shab, a dialectal form of sceabb. Shab
survives in English in the word shabby). There was also a Norse
relative skabbr `scab.' Both the Old English and the Norse words come
from the Proto-Germanic *skab- `scratch, shave' (source also of
English shave). The form scab entered English in about 1275 with the
meaning `skin disease characterized by pustules or scales.' By the
late 14th century it had acquired the meaning `crust which forms over
a wound.' The word was likely reinforced by Latin scabies `scab,
itch,' from scabere `to scratch.' Interestingly, the Latin word and
Proto-Germanic root come from the same Indo-Eurpean root.
The `strike-breaker' sense first arose in the early 19th century, and
prior to that it referred to a person who refused to join a trade
union. These meanings arose from an early 16th century meaning of
`despicable person."
http://www.takeourword.com/et_q-s.html
(Very interesting article)
"History Scabbing Through the Ages"
http://workers.labor.net.au/85/c_historicalfeature_scabs.html
"Scab
The labor sense of this word dates as far back as 1777. The original
sense is anyone who refused to join a union, guild, or other labor
organization.
There is an older sense of scab, dating to the late 16th century,
meaning a low fellow or a rascal. The labor term undoubtedly comes
from this, which in turn comes from the sense of a scab being a
disease of the skin or something unpleasant and nasty."
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordors.htm
"Why We Say "Scab"
The Lexicon of Labor has an excellent history of the term; it was used
in England by 1590 for a "despicable person in the Colonies "it meant
a shirker since 1690 and by 1806 acquired its current labor
connotation. The phrase "to scab on" has been used since 1917.The term
originally is from the Scandinavian scab and is "akin to the Latin
scabies/scabere, mange, to scratch; and has meant a crust over a wound
in English since the 13th century."(The Lexicon of Labor, New
Press,1998),p.160."
http://victorian.fortunecity.com/palace/400/hist1860.htm
========================================================
You asked "did it ever have a positive meaning?"
Well, not that Iīve been able to find! The only way in which it hasnīt
been used in a negative way, is to say that it isnīt 'defamatory' see
below.
"1989 -- Pilot Union tells pilots it's okay to cross Eastern Airlines
picket lines.
In dismissing a libel suit against the pilot's union arising out of
the 1989 Eastern Airlines labor dispute, the court ruled that
publication of a "scab list" was not defamatory because it was
factually true."
http://www.nwmc.org.au/history2/today2/august6.htm
I hope this answers your question, and if you have any doubts, please
donīt hesitate to ask for clarification.
best regards
THX1138
Search strategy included:
scab union 1590
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&as_qdr=all&q=+scab++union+1590 |
Clarification of Answer by
thx1138-ga
on
11 Feb 2003 12:56 PST
Hello again liberty, and thank you for the nice rating of my answer.
You said "I'm just wondering about the "researching" aspect i.e. are
Internet sources replacing one of the "granddadies" of reference
materials?"
Well I know there is a lot of debate about this, Some librarians see
Google Answers (for example) as an excellent and useful resource,
others see it as a threat. In any case, I think the Oxford English
Dictionary is safe (for the time being!)
You also said "I wish my question included something about the usage
of the
term i.e. is it increasing, decreasing or changing in any mesurable
way."
In a strictly measurable way, probably not, but I did notice this
quote during my research for you:
"Yo, Joseph, get with the program. They're not called "scabs" these
days. The preferred euphemism is "replacement workers."
http://www.word-detective.com/041899.html
Thank you once again.
THX1138
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