a chemical scourging through your vessels

[alpacinou]

I was watching a TED Talk on Youtube.

I came across this sentence:

It’s a fantastic feeling. This chemical is scourging through your blood vessels. You are so happy, that’s how powerful this little chemical is.

It was about a chemical which is released when you meet someone new. Is "scourge" correct here? Doesn't it mean pain?

What better word can be used which means that chemical moves with a lot of energy and vigor through blood vessels?

 

[emsr2d2]

Are you sure they said "scourging"? "Surging" would make perfect sense.

 

[alpacinou]

Are you sure they said "scourging"? "Surging" would make perfect sense.

This is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVgzOyHVcj4

From 03:02 - 03:09

 

[GoesStation]

She says this chemical is scorching through your blood vessels. It isn't a verb most people would choose there, but it's easily understood to mean something like "rushing and generating a heat-like feeling".

 

[emsr2d2]

I think the subtitles accurately reflect what she says, which is "gorging", not "scourging" or "surging". However, I don't like her choice of word there at all. A liquid can "engorge" a space. "Gorge [on]" can be used as a verb but it doesn't fit the context at all.

(Cross-posted with GoesStation)

 

[emsr2d2]

She says this chemical is scorching through your blood vessels.

I listened to it again after reading your post. The sound she makes is somewhere between a soft "g" and "ch". I can see why the subtitler wrote "gorging". If she did say "scorching", I don't like her choice!

 

[alpacinou]

What other verbs, other than "rush" can be used there? Is there an idiom which would make it dramatic?

 

[Tarheel]

Their videos had subtitles. Mine didn't. I got bored about halfway through and stopped watching.

 

[Tarheel]

What other verbs, other than "rush" can be used there? Is there an idiom which would make it dramatic?

It would be more dramatic perhaps if he would grab her and kiss her and she would run away screaming.

 

[jutfrank]

The first three times I listened to it, I heard what sounds like scorging, which is not a word, of course.

I don't think she says scorching, because of the voiced 'g' sound.
I don't think she says gorging, because of the unvoiced 's' sound at the beginning.

I think it's a mistake. She may have mashed up two different words. In any case, surging is an appropriate word here.

 

[Tarheel]

Is there any way we can get her to comment here? (Probably not.)