Meaning

noun someone (especially a woman) who annoys people by constantly finding fault

verb censure severely or angrily

verb show one's unhappiness or critical attitude

originThe noun is from Middle English scold(e), skald(e), first attested in the 12th or 13th century (as scold, scolde, skolde, skald). The verb is from Middle English scolden, first attested in the late 1300s. Most dictionaries derive the verb from the noun and say the noun is probably from Old Norse skald (“poet”) (cognate with Icelandic skáld (“poet, scop”)), as skalds sometimes wrote insulting…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0