Scold

A woman who, by her habit of scolding, becomes a nuisance to the neighborhood, is called a "common scold." See "Common Scold."

See Common Scold.

A troublesome and angry woman, who, by brawling and wrangling among her neighbors, breaks the public peace, increases discord, and becomes a public nuisance to the neighborhood. 4 Steph. Comin. 276.

— Common scold. One who, by the practice of frequent scolding, disturbs the neighborhood. Bish. Crim. Law, § 147. A quarrelsome, brawling, vituperative person. U. S. v. Royall, 27 Fed. Cas. 907; Com. v. Mohn. 52 Pa. 243, 91 Am. Dec. 153; Baker v. State, 53 N. J. Law, 45, 20 AU. 858.

A troublesome and angry woman, who, by brawling and wrangling among her neighbors, breaks the public peace, increases discord, and becomes a nuisance to the neighborhood. At common law, a common scold is a public nuisance. The sentence was that she be placed in a trebucket, castigatory, or cucking-stool, that is, in Anglo-Saxon, the scolding stool. The offense is now punishable, if at all, by fine, or by fine and imprisonment. In 1824 a woman was convicted of this offense in the city of Philadelphia, and the sentence was, as at common law, that she "be placed in a ducking or cucking-stool, and be plunged three times in the water." This sentence was reversed by the supreme court, which decided that the old common-law punishment had not been adopted in Pennsylvania. The court also said that the punishment was introduced at a time when women were subjected to degradation as slaves; that authorities differ as to what the original punishment was, and how, therefore, it was to be executed upon offenders, if executed at all. In 1866 the same court, in reviewing the record in another case, said that the law has been considered settled since the decision in the James Case; that the penal code of 1860 did not abolish the offense; and that, as to the unreasonableness of punishing women alone for a too free use of the tongue "it is enough to say that the common law, which is the expressed wisdom of ages, adjudges that it is not unreasonable. Argument drawn from the indelicacy or unreasonableness of such a prosecution should be addressed, therefore, to the legislature." See Punishment, Cruel.

Vide Common Scold.