The word scourge is a homonym. Under this name are two concepts that are not exactly diametrically opposed, but represent two different entities. On the one hand, the scourge is an object, and on the other hand, a man. Let's consider both that and there were no questions.
Beach - item
We begin with the inanimate, and then go to the person. We will pay a little more attention to the latter, because the living soul should have priority. If you look at the explanatory dictionary, then he will tell us that the word “scourge” has the following meanings:
- Whip, whip, long whip. A trainer in a circus deftly wields a scourge.
- What causes disaster and disaster. This is a high style word in that sense. Showers - the scourge of the tropics.
Naturally, scourging can also be used in a figurative sense. For example, "the writer mercilessly uses his cynicism as a scourge, under the blows of which the vices of time cannot survive." A slightly Soviet example came out, but, hopefully, the reader understood the scourge - what kind of tool it is.
Synonyms of the word "scourge" in its subject meaning
As always, consider analogues to facilitate understanding, although in part they are already given in meaning. But, as you know, repetition is the mother of learning. Here are the replacement words:
- punishment;
- a curse;
- to whip;
- whip;
- whip.
Harvest is not rich, but the main thing is not quantity, but quality. The main goal must be achieved, and it is, we recall, to understand the essence of the word "scourge". This is what we are trying for, sparing no energy.
Other, “human” meaning
Homonyms are similar to twin brothers who are well aware of their kinship and therefore try not to be anything like their relative, except for appearance. If you give free rein and include fantasy, you can imagine that the same energy acts on people and words - the power of resistance, so they are filled with a different content.
In another sense, a scourge is a person without certain occupations and haven. The same as the homeless. Do you know what is the difference between a homeless person and a scourge? Never guess. A homeless person is an acronym and stands for "without a fixed place of residence." The reader will ask: “And why in this case the word" homeless "is written in lowercase letters?" Reader, it’s nice to deal with you, great question. The term was used in the protocols of the Soviet police, which means that it has long been living in the language, so "homeless" can be written in lowercase, like "university", for example. What can I say, "there are strange rapprochements."
But our theme is: “Who is the beach?” Calm, everything will be clear. But we need to consider the original meaning.
Origin. A sailor without a ship and a “former intelligent man”
Maybe this will sound a little funny and cynical, but they are not born as scourges, they become them. The question is how? The word appeared as a response to sailors wandering along the shore, who for some reason remained at home instead of boarding a ship. If you rephrase the famous movie hero, which will be discussed later, they probably lost their boarding pass. One way or another, but over time, the scourge became just a tramp, without any connection with the beach, seashore and romanticism sung by Jack London. And yes, given that beach is "beach" in English, and our word is very similar to tracing paper, it probably came to us from Misty Albion or from overseas. But this is only a version.
Remember, we said that the homeless is an abbreviation? So, the scourge is a backronym. The term means a set of words by which an acronym is created. It is interesting that the object of influence was not an abbreviation, or the acronym originally had a different meaning. Of course, without examples it is difficult to understand something. Here they are:
- University (Get Out Successfully Married).
- BEACH (Former Intelligent Man).
- SOS (Save Our Souls) - save our souls. Initially, the distress signal did not mean anything, it was chosen for practical reasons: it was easy to tap it in Morse code.
The words are written in lowercase, we wrote in capital for clarity. Of course, there are more obscene backronyms, but out of respect for the reader we will not give them here.
Regarding the concept of “scourge,” let’s say: it was not an abbreviation, popular imagination is inexhaustible, and almost everyone is not alien to linguistic creativity, even if it’s quite simple.
An Unexpected Example of a Scourge - Chance Boudreau from the movie The Difficult Target (1993)
Naturally, fans will protest which Chance Beach? He looks good, stylishly dressed. Yes, that’s true, but do not forget that this is Hollywood - a “dream factory”. If you want to look at the real homeless people, you just have to go out or read Samuel Becket, he has such a collection, First Love. It presents fairly realistic pictures of homeless life, but everything is so naturalistic that we do not recommend reading to the faint of heart.
But back to Chance. He is obviously a high-class professional who stayed ashore because of his integrity. The hero even has military awards. And such a person, ashamed to say, in the conditions of a fabulous American life turned into a scourge. Such a message can be considered as a certain position of the director. Even the action movie contains an ideological part that should not be ignored.
Of course, the development of events shows that Chance Boudreau is not a scourge at all, but in the beginning he is almost homeless.
Instant soup and scourge?
Now it’s worth touching on the question, what is a scam package? So they call instant noodles: poured boiling water, waited 5 minutes - and you're done.
There is an opinion that this food is so called because it is eaten by poor students who do not have money for normal products, hence the nickname. But, if allowed, we will offer another explanation. The expression entered active speech routine 12-15 years ago. Indeed, students bought noodles, but not because they did not have money, but because they were too lazy to cook ordinary food.
Therefore, the word “scourge” and its derivatives have a different, non-dictionary meaning, the meaning of which exists only in lively colloquial speech: “an extremely low level of anything, of any quality”. For example, a scourge package combines low-quality food and the minimum amount of desire of a “cook” to move and cook something. The following adjectives are suitable as synonyms in this sense:
- miserable;
- beggarly;
- poor;
- miserable;
- insignificant.
All these definitions are used not only in their direct meaning, the spectrum of their figurative meaning is also quite wide.