scatter
English
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Etymology
From Middle English scateren, skateren, (also schateren, see shatter), from Old English *sceaterian, probably from a dialect of Old Norse. Possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split, shatter”). Compare Middle Dutch scheteren (“to scatter”), Low German schateren, Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”); and is apparently remotely akin to Ancient Greek σκεδάννυμι (skedánnumi, “scatter, disperse”).[1] Doublet of shatter.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈskætə/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. enPR: skătʹər, IPA(key): /ˈskætɚ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ætə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: scat‧ter
Verb
scatter (third-person singular simple present scatters, present participle scattering, simple past and past participle scattered)
- (ergative) To (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse.
- The crowd scattered in terror.
- (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths.
- (transitive) To distribute loosely as by sprinkling.
- Her ashes were scattered at the top of a waterfall.
- (Can we date this quote by Dryden and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains, / Their scattered cottages, and ample plains?
- (transitive, physics) To deflect (radiation or particles).
- (intransitive) To occur or fall at widely spaced intervals.
- (transitive) To frustrate, disappoint, and overthrow.
- to scatter hopes or plans
- (transitive) To be dispersed upon.
- Desiccated stalks scattered the fields.
- 2016, J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, page 21:
- […] its beauty is obscured by the environmental waste and loose trash that scatter the countryside.
Synonyms
- (disperse): See also Thesaurus:disperse
Derived terms
Translations
to scatter — see disperse
to cause to separate
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to disperse
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to distribute loosely
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physics: to deflect
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to occur at intervals
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Noun
scatter (countable and uncountable, plural scatters)
- The act of scattering or dispersing.
- A collection of dispersed objects.
- 2006, Theano S. Terkenli, Anne-Marie d'Hauteserre, Landscapes of a New Cultural Economy of Space, Springer Science & Business Media →ISBN, page 84
- The Los Angeles Basin evolved as a mobility surface principally through the combination of an initial system of electric railways connecting a scatter of agricultural settlement settlements.
- 2015, Ian Shennan, Antony J. Long, Benjamin P. Horton, Handbook of Sea-Level Research, John Wiley & Sons →ISBN, page 19
- The plot of all our sea-level index points shows a scatter of data points that do not overlap […]
- 2006, Theano S. Terkenli, Anne-Marie d'Hauteserre, Landscapes of a New Cultural Economy of Space, Springer Science & Business Media →ISBN, page 84
Further reading
- “scatter”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “scatter”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “scatter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
References
- ^ Skeat
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
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- Rhymes:English/ætə(ɹ)
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