These etymological origins of words related to insults are so strange and wonderful that some of them almost seem made up.
For example, it seems there used to be enough people writing “snarky epic poems” in Scandinavia that their title, skald, became synonymous with censure, eventually giving us the word scold. The word scoff comes from the equivalent English tradition, snarky epic poetry apparently having been the Harry Potter of its day.
Read the whole thing for the roots of more insults including cretin, schmuck, and bastard.
