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Glite Dictionary
🌱 To loosen soil 🩸 To cut skin 🌰 To scratch seeds
to scarify

to scarify

9.9
To make shallow cuts in the skin to leave lasting marks for a ceremony
  • verb
  • /ˈskɛrəˌfaɪ/
  • NSFW
translation icon : cicatrizar
  • People did not scarify themselves in Benin, and their traditional surgeons took steps to avoid the formation of keloids.

Examples

  • I wish they were forbidden to write, on pain of having their faces deeply scarified with an oyster shell.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Karo and Hamer women of Ethiopia scarify themselves to render their bodies sexually appealing through elaborate decoration and skin texture.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Why do people adorn, tattoo, pierce, or scarify their bodies?

    Academic text (2006)

  • So, why do tribes adorn, tattoo, pierce, or scarify themselves?

    Academic text (2006)

  • Well, with the Luba, the woman's scarified back is her story as it interacts with her people's story: as I understand it, she would have designs that partake of traditional patterns, but on her back they would have their own individuality, so they would mark her as one special person/member of the larger group.

    Academic text (2001)

  • In some cultures, people choose to scarify their skin as a form of cultural expression.

  • The traditional ceremony involved scarifying the skin to signify passage into adulthood.

  • During rituals, members of the tribe would scarify their arms, leaving permanent marks to show their identity.

Synonyms

to mark
vsto scarify
50 3.0

Leave a permanent scar on skin or a surface

is deliberate shallow cuts for ritual identification rather than any general trace
to scar
vsto scarify
15 3.4

Leave a permanent mark on the skin or a surface after an injury

is deliberate shallow cuts for ritual identification rather than accidental causes

Antonyms

to heal
481 1.2

To become healthy again after an injury, illness, or emotional pain

smooth
1 5.8

An act of making a surface even by rubbing or pressing

How Deep

gash
30 3.9
cut
337 1.0
to nick
33 3.5
to scarify
  • NSFW
9.9
scratch
203 1.6
graze
4 3.4

Surface Forms

scarify infinitive
scarified past
scarified past participle
scarifying present participle
scarifies third person singular

Morphology

scarify = scar (transparent) = scar + ify

The ritual sense 'to make scars' is a direct extension of 'to make scars' from the base noun plus '-ify'.

Etymology

Scarify comes from the same root as scar, which means a 'mark' left by a cut, so to scarify in this sense is to make shallow cuts in the skin that leave permanent marks for ritual or identity. That's why scarify can mean creating scars on the body on purpose.