scatter

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English scateren, also skateren,^[2][3][4] first recorded in the Peterborough Chronicle in the sense "to squander".^[5][2][3] Its origin is uncertain.^[5] Most dictionaries take it as a variant of shatter, with /sk/ for /ʃ/ under Scandinavian influence, since the word first appears in northern and Midland texts;^{[6][7][8][4][9][10]} the American Heritage Dictionary derives it from a northern form of an unrecorded Old English *sceaterian,^[11] and the MED likewise thinks it probably goes back to Old English and compares Middle Dutch schateren.^[2] The OED calls it of obscure origin, formed with an iterative suffix.^[5] It doubts that it and shatter are the same word, since an initial /sk/ in a native word would be abnormal in the north too, and rejects the Dutch and Low German verbs as cognates: the Middle Dutch verb and Middle Low German schāteren mean "to resound, to laugh loudly" and look imitative.^[5] Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”) is compared by Dictionary.com.^[12] The comparison with Ancient Greek σκεδαννύναι (skedannúnai, “to scatter”), made through a supposed Germanic root Proto-Germanic *skat-, is reported by the OED and Weekley.^[5][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To squander or dissipate goods: in the Peterborough Chronicle's annal for 1137, written down about 1154.^[5][2] Barnhart dates it to probably before 1160.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the word first meant "squander",^[8] a sense now archaic.^[14][6] The sense "to drive apart in different directions" is recorded from before 1300,^[5][4] and "to throw loosely about, to strew" from about 1330.^[5] From these came the senses "to place here and there" (about 1380) and "to sow or sprinkle broadly" (about 1450).^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "to throw loosely about; to sprinkle".^[15] The noun, the act of scattering, is recorded from 1642,^[5][3][14] and later took technical senses: in statistics the spread of repeated measurements (1921), and in physics the scattering of light or radio waves (1942, 1950).^[5] In baseball, from 1892, a pitcher scatters hits when he allows them only at intervals.^[5] In 19th-century American slang, scatter could mean a musket or shotgun;^[16] from 1903 the verb also meant simply to leave.^[16] In northern and Scottish dialect, compounds such as scatter-good and scatter-cash meant a spendthrift,^[17] and Weekley notes that Scattergood was already a surname in the 13th century.^[13]

Timeline

• 1154 – to squander goods.^[5]
• before 1300 – to drive or separate in various directions.^[5][4]
• c. 1330 – to throw about in disorder; to strew.^[5]
• c. 1380 – to place here and there.^[5]
• c. 1430 – intransitive, to separate and go different ways.^[5]
• 1642 – noun, the act of scattering.^[5][3][14]
• 1860 – noun, a scattering, sprinkling.^[5]
• 1892 – in baseball, to allow hits only at intervals.^[5]
• 1921 – in statistics, the spread of measurements.^[5]
• 1942 – the scattering of light or other radiation.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To throw things about in various directions; to strew: She scattered crumbs for the sparrows.^[10][14][5]
2. To separate and go, or make go, in different directions; to disperse: The crowd scattered when the rain began.^[10][14][5]
3. To place things here and there at irregular intervals: farms scattered across the valley.^[5][14]
4. In physics, to deflect radiation or particles in many directions.^[10][14]
5. In baseball, of a pitcher, to allow hits only at widely spaced intervals.^[5]
6. (archaic) To squander.^[14][5][6]

Noun

1. The act of scattering.^[10][14][5]
2. A small number or amount scattered about; a sprinkling: a scatter of fallen leaves.^[10][14][5]
3. In statistics, the degree to which repeated observations differ; dispersion.^[14][5]
4. The scattering of light or radio waves.^[5][14]

Word family

• scatterer
• scatterable
• scatteringly
• scatterbrain
• scattergun
• scattershot
• scatteration
• scatterbrained

Related words

• shatter
• scat
• squatter

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster also records a slang noun scatter, a saloon or hangout, of unknown origin.^[14] Dictionary.com distinguishes it from dispel, disperse and dissipate: to scatter is to separate something into parts at random and drive them in different directions.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ 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)