im not sure what they are really...
!WORD HISTORY A scold is not usually a poet and a scolding rarely sounds like poetry to the one being scolded, but it seems that the word scold has a poetic background. It is probable that scold, first recorded in Middle English in a work probably composed around 1150, has a Scandinavian source related to the Old Icelandic word skāld, “poet.†Middle English scolde may in fact mean “a minstrel,†but of that we are not sure. However, its Middle English meanings, “a ribald abusive person†and “a shrewish chiding woman,†may be related to skāld, as shown by the senses of some of the Old Icelandic words derived from skāld. Old Icelandic skāldskapr, for example, meant “poetry†in a good sense but also “a libel in verse,†while skāld-stöng meant “a pole with imprecations or charms scratched on it.†It would seem that libelous cursing verse was a noted part of at least some poets' productions and that this association with poets passed firmly along with the Scandinavian borrowing into English.!
