scat

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skæt/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• 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”), 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.

Translations

tax, tribute

• Swedish: skatt (sv) c
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain. Both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster suggest derivation from Ancient Greek σκῶρ (skôr, “excrement”), compare English scato-, but Random House Dictionary suggests that the popular character of the word makes this unlikely. Perhaps from English dialectal scat (“to scatter, fling, bespatter”), or an alteration of shit, which is also used for "drugs, heroin".

Alternative forms

• skatt (brisk shower of rain)

Noun

scat (uncountable)

1. (biology) Animal excrement; droppings, dung.
   • 2014 September 22, James Gorman, “For polar bears, a climate change twist [print version: For hungry polar bears, a climate change twist, International New York Times, 24 September 2014, p 12]”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     They turned to polar bear feces, or scat, as it is commonly called. […] She and Quinoa [a dog] worked with Dr. Rockwell to collect and study samples of polar bear scat for several years and found that the bears were eating lots of geese.

   • 2018 Brent Butt as Brent Herbert Leroy, "Sasquatch Your Language", Corner Gas Animated

     Wherever legitimate tracks are found there's always some fresh scat, y'know, poo, flop, dumplings.

2. (slang) Heroin.
3. (slang, obsolete) Whiskey.
4. (slang) Coprophilia.
   • 1988, “Pete”, quoted in Seymour Kleinberg, Alienated Affections: Being Gay in America, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 183:

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

   • 1998, Dennis Cooper, Guide, Grove Press, →ISBN, 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, 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 brisk shower of rain, driven by the wind.
   • 1759, Andrew Brice, The Grand Gazetteer, or Topographic Dictionary‎^[2], page 677:

     Low black Clouds on it being ſoppoſed to prognoſticate Rain in the Places beneath it, it has been a ſtanding old Saw, When Haldon hath a Hat, Kenton beware a Skat.

Synonyms

• (excrement): See Thesaurus:feces
• (heroin): shit, scag; see also Thesaurus:heroin
• (rain driven by wind): See Thesaurus:storm

Related terms

• scatology (dung)
• scatological

Translations

animal excrement

• Swedish: spillning (sv) c
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

coprophilia

• French: scato (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Etymology 3

Probably imitative.

Noun

scat (plural scats)

1. (music, jazz) Scat singing.

Verb

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

Etymology 4

Perhaps from the interjection scat!, itself an interjectional form of scoot! or scout!, from the root of shoot. Alternatively, from the expression quicker than s'cat (“in a great hurry”), perhaps representing a hiss followed by the word cat. Compare Swedish schas! (“shoo!, begone!”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Verb

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: сва́ливать (ru) (sválivatʹ)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

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

• Latin: apage
• Navajo: kxodjįʼ
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: sio (pl)
• Russian: брысь (ru) (brysʹ)

Etymology 5

From the taxonomic name of the family

Noun

scat (plural scats)

1. Any fish in the family Scatophagidae

Anagrams

• -cast, ACTs, ATCs, ATSC, Acts, Cast, Cats, STCA, TACS, TCAS, TCAs, TSCA, acts, cast, cats

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Old Saxon

Noun

scat m

1. Alternative spelling of skat

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Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English scat.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /is.ˈkɛ.tʃi/
• IPA^(key): /iʃ.ˈkɛ.ti/
• IPA^(key): /i(j)ʃ.ˈkɛ.tʃi/
• IPA^(key): /es.ˈkɛ.te/
• Rhymes: -ɛt(ʃ)i
• Homophones: sketch, esquete

Noun

scat m (invariable)

1. scat, coprophilia (sexual interest in feces)

   Synonym: coprofilia

   • 2005, “Avião Brutal do Scat”, in WARderley, performed by U.D.R.:

     Expanda sua mente; aceite um animal
     Participe de uma orgia transexual
     Voando pelos ares, que mal há num boquete?
     Viaje no avião brutal do scat

     Expand your mind; accept an animal
     Take part on a transexual orgy
     Flying through the air, what's evil about a blowjob?
     Travel in the brutal air plane of scat