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Etymology and origin of the English word scat

English has several words spelled scat; the three main ones are the command to go away, the wordless singing of jazz and the word for animal dung.[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

scat1 go away!

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Compound
First attested
1833
Ultimate origin
English ss,cat

Etymology

The word for the command "go away!" is probably from English ss (“a hiss”) + cat, a hiss followed by the call to a cat, used in driving cats away.[6][3][2][7][8] The Shorter Oxford, the Concise Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English also suggest a shortening of scatter,[9][10][11] and the American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com call it of unknown or uncertain origin.[12][13] The Dictionary of American Regional English takes the noun in phrases such as “quicker than scat” and “before one can say scat” from the command, as an example of a very short utterance.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart finds it first in the phrase “quicker than s’cat”, in a great hurry, in 1833.[3] The interjection "begone!" is recorded from 1838, in Yankee Notions,[6][3] and is American English in origin.[3][13]

Semantic evolution

The interjection was soon used as a verb, to go away quickly, usually as a command;[6][1][7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the verb to 1838 too, and also records the sense of moving unusually fast, as of a car.[1] Green's Dictionary of Slang has it from 1844, with the variants skat, scat off and scat up, in Australian and British as well as American use.[8] The Dictionary of American Regional English records “quicker than scat” from 1860.[14]

Timeline

  • 1833 – in “quicker than s’cat”, in a great hurry.[3]
  • 1838 – interjection, begone!; soon also a verb, to go away.[6][3][1]

Meanings

Interjection

  1. Go away!: used especially to drive off a cat or other small animal.[6][1][2]

Verb

  1. (informal) To leave in a hurry; usually as a command: Scat, all of you, before the bus leaves without us![7][12][1]
  2. To move very fast.[1]

scat2 jazz singing

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1926

Etymology

The word for wordless jazz singing is probably imitative, from one of the syllables sung.[2][6][3][9][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins call it perhaps imitative,[1][7] and Dictionary.com of uncertain origin.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Improvised singing with nonsense syllables in place of words: 1926, according to Etymonline.[2] The OED's first record is from 1929, in Melody Maker, and Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also date it to 1929, Barnhart as American English.[6][3][1]

Semantic evolution

The syllables usually imitate the sound of a musical instrument.[6][9][1] The verb, to sing scat, followed in 1935, in Metronome,[6][3][1][2] and transitive use, to sing a song in this way, in 1946, in Mezzrow and Wolfe's Really the Blues.[6] The word is often found in scat-singer and scat-singing.[9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares bop and riff.[1]

Timeline

  • 1926 – improvised singing with nonsense syllables, in jazz.[2] The OED's first record is from 1929.[6][3][1]
  • 1935 – verb, to sing scat.[6][3][1]
  • 1946 – verb, transitive, to sing a song in scat.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A style of jazz singing in which improvised, meaningless syllables replace the words, often imitating a musical instrument.[7][1][6]

Verb

  1. To sing in this style: The singer scatted through the final chorus.[7][1][6]

scat3 animal dung

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1927
Borrowed from
Ancient Greek σκῶρ
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek σκῶρ

Etymology

The word for animal dung is borrowed from Ancient Greek σκῶρ (skôr, “dung, excrement”), from its stem σκατ- (skat-),[6][1][9][2][10] as in scatology.[2][9] Green's Dictionary of Slang treats it as a shortening.[8] Dictionary.com doubts the Greek source, given the popular character of the word, and compares the south-western English dialect verb “scat”, to scatter, fling down or bespatter,[13] a verb Wright records in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

An animal's dropping: 1927, according to Merriam-Webster Unabridged,[1] and Dictionary.com also dates the word to the late 1920s.[13] The OED's first record is from 1950, in Webster's New International Dictionary, and Etymonline dates it by 1950.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Dalzell records the word in the United States from 1927 for excrement as a sexual fetish,[16] and Green's Dictionary of Slang has it for that practice from the 1980s.[8] In drug slang scat has been heroin since 1970, on the model of shit;[6][9] Green's Dictionary of Slang has a heroin scat from 1912, but as a variant of scag.[8]

Timeline

  • 1927 – an animal's dropping.[1] The OED's first record is from 1950.[6][2]
  • 1927 – in the US, excrement as a sexual fetish.[16]
  • 1970 – slang, heroin.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The dung or droppings of an animal: We found fox scat beside the trail.[1][6][9]
  2. (slang) Heroin.[6][9]
  3. (slang) Excrement as a sexual fetish.[8][16]

Usage notes

Other words spelled scat are a historical land tax of Orkney and Shetland (Old Norse skattr (“tribute, tax”), related to Old English sceatt);[6][1][9][17] a dialect word for a sudden shower of rain, a blow or a short spell of weather, perhaps imitative;[6][9][1][15] American slang for whisky, from 1914;[6][8] and a name for the argusfish, shortened from the former genus name New Latin Scatophagus.[1][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
  5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
  15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  16. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
  17. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Scat.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/scat. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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