Scuff
/skʌf/noun
To scrape or drag the feet, or to mark or wear a surface by rubbing it.
Did you know?Scuff is one of those blunt, physical words that likely arose as an imitative or expressive form in English, showing how ordinary motion and sound can harden into a lasting verb.
Etymological Timeline
Early Modern English
English
scuff
“To scrape or rub with the feet; to move with a shuffling, dragging motion.”
Middle English
English
scuffen
“To scrape, rub, or shuffle along.”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*skub- / *skuf-
“An expressive base associated with scraping, pushing, or shoving motions.”
Old English
English
(no securely attested direct ancestor)
“No single inherited Old English form is securely established; the word is usually treated as an expressive formation within English.”
Modern English
English
scuff
“To scrape the surface of something, especially by dragging the feet.”