Bet you thought I made a typo there, didn’t ya? 
Anyhow, I came across this term for the first time while reading the book “Why Men Lie and Women Cry” by Allan & Barbara Pease.
And here is what I found out :-
A common scold is a woman who is accused of offending her husband by being a ‘nag’.
Yeah, you heard that right. It was a punishable offence to be a nag in the late 19th century.
So any woman who was opinionated, vocal and feminist, was branded a common scold and was punished.
How??
By dunking her repeatedly in a river or lake.
Funny??
Not really. If you go by the methods implemented for this punishment.
The "ducking chair"
The woman in question was strapped to a chair and the chair was then lowered into a river or pond till submerged. The duration of being submerged depended on the severity of the allegation. Apparently, witches and prostitutes were submerged for longer periods than regular housewives. The punishment could last from a few hours to the whole day.
And if the woman still continued to be a common scold, she was paraded in the town/village, with a metal mask (called “the branks” )on her face, with a rod inside it which was forced into the culprit’s mouth to hold the tongue down.
Whew!!
All this for just reminding the man-of-the-house to take out the trash!!!
Coming to the present, I nag the BF ALL the time. Right from the time he gets up to the time he goes to sleep. I just don’t nag him about picking up his wet-towel-on-the-bed routine, I bicker about his diet, lack of exercise, extra working hours, etc, etc.
Believe me, If I was in the 19th century, by now, I would’ve been dunked to death.
Not funny at all 
On second thoughts, I really shouldn’t have written this post.
What if the BF reads it?!!
SHUDDER!!!!
Naah, I kid. This time
Edited to add :
You can read up more on the common scold and dunking chair here .
