scat

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /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), Icelandic skattur (tax, tribute), Latin scateō (gush, team, bubble forth, abound).

Alternative forms

Noun

scat (plural scats)

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

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain. Both the Oxford English Dictionary[1] and Merriam-Webster[2] suggest derivation from Ancient Greek σκῶρ (skôr, excrement), but Random House Dictionary suggests that the popular character of the word makes this unlikely.[3] 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:
      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. (Britain, dialectal) A brisk shower of rain, driven by the wind.
    • 1759, Andrew Brice, The Grand Gazetteer, or Topographic Dictionary, 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
Translations

Etymology 3

Probably imitative.[4]

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

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!).

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

Etymology 5

From the taxonomic name of the family

Noun

scat (plural scats)

  1. Any fish in the family Scatophagidae

References

  1. “scat, n.7” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.
  2. scat” in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.
  3. scat” in Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd rev. and updated edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN; reproduced on Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, retrieved 2018.
  4. “scat, n.6 and a” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.

Anagrams


Old Saxon

Noun

scat m

  1. Alternative spelling of skat

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English scat.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

scat m (please add plural)

  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
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