scat

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA: /skæt/
• Rhymes: -æt

Etymology 1

From Middle English scet, schat, from Old English sceatt (“property, goods, owndom, wealth, treasure; payment, price, gift, bribe, tax, tribute, money, goods, reward, rent, a tithe; a piece of money, a coin; denarius, twentieth part of a shilling”) and Old Norse skattr (“wealth, treaure, tax, tribute, coin”); both from Proto-Germanic *skattaz (“cattle, kine, wealth, owndom, goods, hoard, treasure, geld, money”), from Proto-Indo-European *skatn-, *skat- (“to jump, skip, splash out”). Cognate with Scots scat (“tax, levy, charge, payment, bribe”), West Frisian skat (“treasure, darling”), Dutch schat (“treasure, hoard, darling, sweetheart”), German Schatz (“treasure, hoard, wealth, store, darling, sweetheart”), Swedish skatt (“treasure, tax, duty, jewel”), Icelandic skattur (“tax, tribute”), Latin scateō (“gush, team, bubble forth, abound”).

Alternative forms

• scatt, skatt

Noun

scat (plural scats)

1. A tax; tribute.
2. (UK dialectal) A land-tax paid in the Shetland Islands.

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from English dialectal scat (“to scatter, fling down, bespatter”), or an alteration of shit (past tense shat; compare Old English scāt), also used for "drugs, heroine". Given the given popular character of the word and unmotivated derivation pattern, derivation from Ancient Greek σκῶρ (skōr, skat-, “excrement”) is unlikely

Noun

scat (uncountable)

1. (biology) Animal excrement; dung.
2. (slang) Heroin.
3. (slang, obsolete) Whiskey.
4. (slang) Coprophilia.
   • 1988, “Pete”, quoted in Seymour Kleinberg, Alienated Affections: Being Gay in America, Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-312-02158-0, page 183:

     Enema queens, like scat queens, are really the scum of the earth.

   • 1998, Dennis Cooper, Guide, Grove Press, ISBN 978-0-8021-3580-3, page 170:

     “ […] I hear he’s into S&M and scat and all kinds of kinky shit. […] ”

   • 2004, Phineas Mollod and Jason Tesauro, The Modern Lover: A Playbook for Suitors, Spouses & Ringless Carousers, Ten Speed Press, ISBN 978-1-58008-601-1, page 72:

     In short, when venturing into the realm of extreme fetish, ensure you have an extreme understanding of a partner’s boundaries before laying down a plastic tarp for scat play.

5. (UK, dialect) A shower of rain.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (excrement (slang)): do do, dooky, crap, poop, shit
• (animal excrement): droppings, spoor (biology, hunting, trailing, trapping)

Related terms

• scatology (dung)
• scatological

Etymology 3

Probably imitative.

Noun

scat (plural scats)

1. (music, jazz) Scat singing.

Verb

scat (third-person singular simple present scats, present participle scatting, simple past and past participle scatted)

1. (music, jazz) To sing an improvised melodic solo using nonsense syllables, often onomatopoeic or imitative of musical instruments.

Etymology 4

From the expression quicker than s'cat (“in a great hurry”), perhaps representing a hiss followed by the word cat.

Verb

scat (third-person singular simple present scats, present participle scatting, simple past and past participle scatted)

1. (colloquial) To leave quickly (often used in the imperative).

   Here comes the principal; we'd better scat.

2. (colloquial) An imperative demand, often understood by speaker and listener as impertinent.

   Scat! Go on! Get out of here!

Translations

To leave quickly (often used in the imperative)

• Russian: сваливать (ru) (svalivatʹ)

An imperative demand, often understood by speaker and listener as impertinent

• Russian: брысь (ru) (brysʹ)

References

• ^ 2012, Dictionary.com Unabridged, Based on the Random House Dictionary, "scat"

Anagrams

• acts, Acts, cast, cats, Cats, TACS, TCAs, TCAS, TSCA

---

Old Saxon

Noun

scat m

1. Alternative spelling of skat.