Scold
Middle English (as a noun): probably from Old Norse skáld ‘skald’.
wiktionary
The noun is from Middle English scold(e), skald(e), first attested in the 12th or 13th century (as scold, scolde, skolde, skald). The verb is from Middle English scolden, first attested in the late 1300s. Most dictionaries derive the verb from the noun and say the noun is probably from Old Norse skald(“poet”) (cognate with Icelandic skáld(“poet, scop”)), as skalds sometimes wrote insulting poems, [1] [2] [3] [4] though another view is that the Norse and English words are cognate to each other and to Old High German skeldan, Old Dutch skeldan, [5] all inherited from Proto-Germanic *skeldaną(“scold”).
etymonline
scold (n.)
mid-12c., "person of ribald speech," later "person fond of abusive language" (c. 1300), especially a shrewish woman [Johnson defines it as "A clamourous, rude, mean, low, foul-mouthed woman"], from Old Norse skald "poet" (see skald). The sense evolution might reflect the fact that Germanic poets (like their Celtic counterparts) were famously feared for their ability to lampoon and mock (as in skaldskapr "poetry," also, in Icelandic law books, "libel in verse").
scold (v.)
late 14c., "be abusive or quarrelsome," from scold (n.). Related: Scolded; scolding.
