Scavenge is a
derivative of scavenger, which appeared in English in the early 16th century. Scavenger
is an alteration of the earlier scavager, itself from Anglo-French scawageour,
meaning "collector of scavage." In medieval times, scavage was a tax
levied by towns and cities on goods put up for sale by nonresidents in order to
provide resident merchants with a competitive advantage. The officers in charge
of collecting this tax were later made responsible for keeping streets clean,
and that's how scavenger came to refer to a public sanitation employee in Great
Britain before acquiring its current sense referring to a person who salvages
discarded items.
The first meaning of the word yen was an intense craving for opium
theEnglish term evolved from the Cantonese yīn-yáhn, which itself combines yīn,
meaning "opium," and yáhn, meaning "craving." In English,
the Chinese syllables were transformed to yen-yen and ultimately abbreviated to
simply yen. Eventually, yen was generalized to the more innocuous meaning of
"a strong desire," and the link to drug cravings was lost.
In Middle English, to "disparage" someone meant causing
that person to marry someone of inferior rank. Disparage derives from the
Anglo-French word desparager, meaning "to marry below one's class."
Sabotage comes
from the French word saboter which means
to walk noisily, to botch, from sabot (wooden shoe).
