The word "scurvy" has been used in literature with a range of meanings, shifting from a literal reference to a debilitating disease among sailors to a versatile term of abuse and moral judgment. In some texts it denotes the physical affliction that plagued seamen—illustrated in works like Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast where it is mentioned in the context of actual health hazards ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]). Yet authors have also employed "scurvy" as a pungent epithet, using it to describe characters seen as contemptible or morally inferior, as seen in Shakespeare’s invectives (e.g., "scurvy knave" in [6] and insults in [7]) and in the colorful invective of Rabelais ([8], [9]). Moreover, authors like Boccaccio ([10], [11]) and Chekhov ([12], [13], [14]) play with the term to accentuate a character’s low status or untrustworthy nature, sometimes even in humorous or ironic tones. Thus, across a spectrum of literary traditions, "scurvy" functions both as an emblem of the pirates' or sailors' physical vulnerability and as a cutting adjective that vividly conveys disdain and derision.