Burning or injuring with very hot liquid or steam; or describing something extremely hot or bitterly critical words.
From Old Norse 'skaldi' or Old French 'escalder,' ultimately from Latin 'excaldare' meaning 'to bathe in hot water.' The term evolved to mean any injury from extreme heat.
Medieval people understood scalding so well that they had specific laws about it—guilds regulated the exact temperature of vats used by dyers and brewers to prevent workers from being boiled alive!
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