Scarify

'To scarify' is a verb with one precise meaning, together with an 'inaccurate' and slangy meaning which should be avoided in academic English.

• The proper use of the word in academic English means 'to make a number of scratches, or light cuts in something'. It is derived, through Latin scarificare, from the Greek σκαρῑφᾶσθαι, 'to scratch an outline'. (In turn, this comes from σκὰρῑφος, 'pencil'.) It has nothing to do with 'scar', which is ultimately derived from the Greek for a 'hearth' (ὲσχἁρα) (although its meaning comes close), nor 'scare', meaning 'to frighten', which is from the Old Norse skirra. So the first syllable ot the three words is pronounced differently:
  • in scar, the '-a-' is like that in car, IPA: /ɑː/
  • in scare, it is like care, IPA: /eɪ/
  • in scarify, it is like back or cat, IPA: /æ/.

'To scarify', along with related words such as scarification, is used in such contexts as horticulture (where 'to scarify' a lawn is to rake it deeply, to remove dead matter, moss etc, and allow air to reach the roots of the grass); medicine (where 'to scarify' the skin is to roughen it); in ethnography and social anthropology (where in some cultures initiation ceremonies include a form of scarification, or tattooing by scarring, of the face or body or both); building (where a surface may be scarified or roughened to allow a coat of plaster or some other material to be more firmly fixed or 'keyed'); and road-building (where a similar process of scarifying is undertaken to roughen up an old worn surface before applying a new surface, and helping it to bond better with the previous layer).

• Only in slang, or among children, should the word 'to scarify' (pronounced with the first '-a-' like that in 'care', IPA: /eɪ/) be "a smart synonym for to scare" (New Statesman 14/01/1966, cited in OED). Students who use it in this way are trying too hard to use long words where short ones are better.