the.com/scald
a burn that arrives by ambush, riding steam and innocent-looking water past your defenses
means To burn or injure with hot liquid or steam, or to heat a liquid (like milk) to just below boiling.
from From Old English, but borrowed in via the older French escalder, both tracing back to Late Latin excaldare — to wash in hot water — built from Latin ex- (thoroughly) plus calidus (hot), the same calidus that warms the word 'cauldron.' So the kitchen and the bathhouse hide in its roots: a word for heat that was originally about deliberate hot soaking, before it turned on us.
- steam stings worse
- Vapor carries far more energy than boiling water
- degree threshold
- 140F water scalds adult skin in five seconds
- old poet job
- A skald was a Norse court poet, no relation
- milk term
- Scalding milk just before boiling kills spoilage enzymes
- common culprit
- Tap water scalds more children than stoves do
french fries industrial burns — mcdonald's faced thousands of scald injury lawsuits from hot oil spattering, leading to safety redesigns
tea industry worker injuries — chinese tea factories report annual scald injuries from boiling water used in processing and packaging