scunner

See also: Scunner

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots scunner, skunner, from Old Scots skunnyr, skowner (“to shrink back; flinch”), from Middle English skoneren (“to feel sick or disgusted”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a frequentative of shun. If so, etymologically shun +‎ -er (frequentative suffix). Compare also Middle English scurnen (“to flinch”), English scare, English scorn.

Verb

scunner (third-person singular simple present scunners, present participle scunnering, simple past and past participle scunnered)

1. To be sick of.
2. (Northumbria) To dislike.
3. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To cause to loathe, or feel disgust at.
   • 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 123:

     But maybe she'd just got scunnered with Glasgow, fucked off to try her luck someplace else.

Noun

scunner (countable and uncountable, plural scunners)

1. (Northumbria) Dislike or aversion.
2. (North Yorkshire, derogatory) An urban youth usually associated with trouble or petty crime; a young chav.

Synonyms

• charva, charver (Tyneside dialect)
• chav
• scally

Further reading

• Bill Griffiths, editor (2004), “scunner”, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Northumbria University Press, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• cunners

Scots

Verb

scunner (third-person singular simple present scunners, present participle scunnerin, simple past scunnert, past participle scunnert)

1. to loathe, to feel disgust

Noun

scunner (plural scunners)

1. disgust, the object of loathing
2. a disappointment, caused by an unlucky or unfortunate set of circumstances.

References

• “scunner, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 24 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “scunner, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 24 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “scunner, v., n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 24 May 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.