szkrab

Etymology

Uncertain. Perhaps related to dialectal szkraby (“old, crooked, unusable footwear”), the equivalents of which are attested in Czech šráb and Ukrainian шраб (šrab), ultimately derived from Proto-Slavic *skrobati (“to scrape, to scratch”), from *skrebti (“to scrape, to rustle”). The original meaning would therefore be “a creature that makes clumsy movements, accompanied by the sound of scraping”. Compare also dialectal Polish śkrabki (“scabies”). Alternatively, perhaps borrowed from argot German Schrappen, Schrabbiner, Schrapf, Schrabbiner.