Meaning

noun a whip used to inflict punishment (often used for pedantic humor)

noun something causing misery or death

noun a person who inspires fear or dread

originFrom Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”), and then either: * from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, escurge, or Old French scurge, escourge, escorge, escorgiee, escurge (modern French escourgée (“(archaic) whip made of leather strips”)), either: ** from Vulgar Latin *excoriāta (“strip of hide; a scourge”),…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0