scullion

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskʌl.i.ən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Either from Middle French escouillon (“a swab, cloth”), diminutive of escouve (“broom, twig”) from Latin scopa, or an alteration of Old French souillon (“scullion”) by influence of scullery.

scullion (plural scullions)

1. A servant from the lower classes.
   • 1762, [Laurence Sterne], chapter IX, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume V, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], →OCLC, page 52:

     They all looked directly at the ſcullion,—the ſcullion had juſt been ſcouring a fiſh-kettle.

   • 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 44:

     "How now, you scullions and cullions: bring hither a pair of cow's hooves to out face this contumelious caitiff."

2. (obsolete, derogatory) A low, base person. [1400s]
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     Away, you scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian!

scullion (plural scullions)

1. Alternative form of scallion.

• Cullison, cullions