scalp
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /skælp/
rhymes: -ælp
Forms: form: scalps
Etymology: From Middle English scalp, skalp, scalpe (“crown of the head; skull”). Originally a northern word, and therefore probably from a North Germanic source, although the sense-development is unclear; compare Sylt North Frisian Skolp (“dandruff”), Old Norse skálpr (“sheath”), Old Swedish skalp, Dutch schelp (“shell”).
Senses: synonyms: skull
glosses: The top of the head; the skull.
examples: text: By the bare scalpe of Robin Hoods fat Fryer, / This fellow were a King, for our wilde faction.
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: The original titanium mesh plate that was inserted in the summer of 2010 was removed last June since it was causing his scalp to break down.
ref: 2014, Kaitlin Newman, “Five years after beating, Ryan Diviney's family holds out hope”, in Baltimore Sun, archived from the original on 10 Nov 2014:
glosses: The part of the head where the hair grows from, or used to grow from.
examples: text: Some tribes used to collect scalps to prove how many of the enemy they had killed in battle.
text: The most disturbing thing about Disneyland is seeing all those smiling people walking around wearing Mickey Mouse's severed scalp.
ref: 2018 September 14, Norm Macdonald Has a Show, season 1, episode 6, spoken by Norm Macdonald:
glosses: The part of the head where the hair grows from, or used to grow from.
A part of the skin of the head, with the hair attached, formerly cut or torn off from an enemy by warriors in some cultures as a token of victory.
examples: text: He bears for Arms : Argent, on a chevron invected gules, between two bugle-horns sable, stringed of the second in chief, and the attires of a stag affixed to the scalp in base of the third, two fasces chevronways or.
ref: 1899, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Some Gentlemen of Coat-armour, Showing which Arms in Use at the Moment are Borne by Legal Authority, page 313:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: The part of the head where the hair grows from, or used to grow from.
The skin of the head of a stag, to which the horns are attached.
examples: text: [At the American State Convention in 1856 the Hon E. M. Yerger of Yazoo said that] he came up to the great council fire of his people, not like his friends Cobb, Hillyer and Brooke, with no scalps at his girdle that he had had a fight and a glorious victory.
ref: 1856 January 25, “Editorial Correspondence”, in The Weekly American Banner, Yazoo City, Miss., page 3:
text: His mind is quick to perceive a weak place in the enemy's armor, as he glances over the exchanges, and when he "goes for" a solitary foe he always returns with the scalp hanging at his girdle.
ref: 1872 August 9, Correspondence of the New York Times, “Nasby at Home”, in The Portland Daily Press, Portland, Me., page 1:
text: Pat Buchanan, in his ongoing presidential quest, claimed his first scalp, and Donald Wildmon's newsletter chortled that his efforts in opposing the NEA had paid off.
ref: 1993, John Frohnmayer, Leaving Town Alive: Confessions of an Arts Warrior, page 331:
text: Admiral Lee, aboard USS Washington, can content himself with the fact that his ship has claimed the scalp, or helped claim the scalp, of three out of the four Kongō class, and has landed meaningful hits on Nagato and Yamato as well, making it the single most successful U.S. battleship in history.
ref: 2021 May 5, Drachinifel, 46:28 from the start, in Battle of Samar - What if TF34 was there?, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2022:
text: Randy Waldrum’s Nigeria, ranked 40th in the world, 36 places below England, looked as if they would claim the latest big scalp and knock out the European champions after the eliminations of Brazil, Canada, Germany and the USA.
ref: 2023 August 7, Suzanne Wrack, “England beat Nigeria on penalties to reach Women’s World Cup quarter-finals”, in The Guardian:
glosses: A victory, especially at the expense of someone else.
synonyms: scaup
glosses: A bed or stratum of shellfish.
examples: text: the snowy scalp of Ben Cruachan
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
synonyms: summit
glosses: The top; the summit.
Derived terms: bulldog scalp
scalp-ear-nipple syndrome
scalped
scalpless
scalp lock
scalp ringworm
scalpy