20kWEB: Origin of the word Dandriff. Etymology of the word Dandriff. Etymology Dictionary.

DANDRIFF, scurf on the head. (C.) Formerly dandruff; 'the dandruffe or unseemly skales within the haire of head or beard;' Holland's Pliny, b. xx. c. 8.—W. ton, surface, sward, peel, skin; whence W. marwdon, lit. dead skin (from marw, dead, and don, permuted form of ton), but used to mean scurf, dandriff. Cf. Bret. tañ, tiñ, scurf. This clearly accounts for the first syllable. β. As to the second, Mr. Wedgwood well suggests that it may be due to the W. drwg, bad. Cf. Gael. droch, bad; Bret. drouk, droug, bad. The final ff would thus correspond, as usual, to an old guttural sound. ¶ In Webster's Dict., the derivation is given from A.S. tan, an eruption on the skin, and drof, dirty. Of these words, the first is merely another form of W. ton, as above; it occurs in Ælfric's Glossary, ed. Smoner, p. 71, where we find: 'Mentagra, tan; Allox, micele tan.' The latter word drof, dirty, is not proven to exist; it is one of the unauthorised words only too common in Somner. It should be remembered that the placing of the adjective after the substantive is a Welsh habit, not an English one; so that an A.S. origin for the word is hardly admissible.

Etymology Dictionary

Origin of the word DANDRIFF. Etymology of the word DANDRIFF.