Scourge

A scourge is a whip or lash, especially a multi-thong type, used to inflict severe corporal punishment or self-mortification on the back.

Etymology

The word is most commonly considered to be derived from Old French escorgier - "to whip", going further back to the Vulgar Latin excorrigiare: the Latin prefix ex- "out, off" with its additional English meaning of "thoroughly", plus corrigia - "thong", or in this case "whip". Some connect it to Latin: 'excoriare', "to flay", built of two Latin parts, ex- ("off") and corium, "skin".

Description

The typic (Latin: flagrum; diminutive: flagellum) has several thongs fastened to a handle; cat o' nine tails: naval thick-rope knotted-end scourge, the army and civil prison versions usually are leather.

The scourge, or flail, and the crook are the two symbols of power and domination depicted in the hands of Osiris in Egyptian monuments. They are the unchanging form of the instrument throughout the ages, though one interpretation of the flail depicted in Egyptian mythology is that it was an agricultural instrument used to thresh wheat, not implement corporal punishment.