English
scrutiny
Scrutiny comes from Medieval Latin scrūtinium ‘a search, an inquiry’, and goes back to Late Latin scrūta ‘rubbish, broken trash’.
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEscrūta‘rubbish, broken trash’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CEscrūtor‘to search or examine thoroughly’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500scrūtinium‘a search, an inquiry’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scrutiny
- Englishearliest quotation 1671scrutiny
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEscrūta‘rubbish, broken trash’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CEscrūtor‘to search or examine thoroughly’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500scrūtinium‘a search, an inquiry’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scrutiny
- Englishearliest quotation 1671scrutiny
Earliest quotation: 1671, John Milton, The First Book: “Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view /…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut’
short, share, across, card, cancer, cross, shirt, score, circle, circuit, screen, curve, circus, skirt, crucial, carnival, scare, circulation, curb, cancellation, circa, scar, shrine, crest, corona, shear, shred, carnage, scorpion, raffle, circulate, corolla, shrewd, incarceration, shard, carcinoma, carnal, cirque, scorn, riddance, 119 more
through Vulgar Latin scrūtor ‘to search or examine thoroughly’
Today it means
noun Intense study of someone or something.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Late Latin scrūta / scrutiny