Late 16th Century German/Dutch, meaning "a mean, insignificant fellow".
It became popular in English because "scrubbing" ships was the job of the lowest enlisted man, and they were called "scrubs".
English
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thanks for answering legitimately :)
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Figured I'd get in here before it got buried. Funny part is - I actually still had the screen up from where I'd just looked it up writing another post!