scurry

Etymology

The current verb, recorded from 1810, is probably from English a clipping of hurry-scurry,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} a jingling reduplication of hurry.^{[9][6][10][4]} Etymonline adds that it may instead be imitative.^[10] Other dictionaries bring in another form: scour in Klein and, in part, in Weekley, and scamper or, less probably, scatter in Partridge.^[11][12][13] An isolated earlier use, to ride out as a scout, is apparently a back-formation from scurrier, a scout,^[9][14] itself apparently shortened from Old French descouvreor (“discoverer”).^[9] The reduplication itself is recorded from 1732,^[9][10][15] and the OED and Etymonline take it as made with an existing verb of this form in mind.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To ride out as a scout, a doubtful and obsolete sense: 1579, in Thomas North's translation of Acciaiuoli.^[9] The sense "to run quickly" is first found in 1810, in Southey's The Curse of Kehama.^[9][15][4]

Semantic evolution

The scouting sense is known only from the late 16th century.^[14][9] After Southey the verb came to mean moving hurriedly, often with short quick steps and often followed by an adverb,^[9][14] and since 1850, in a letter of Thackeray, also causing someone to move in that way.^[9] The noun comes from the verb:^[10][15][9] Moor's Suffolk Words of 1823 has it for a hurried movement, and it soon named a short horse race (1824) and a whirl of birds, snow or foam (1839).^[9] Later uses take it to a run made by an animal (1865) and to show-jumping and carriage-driving, where faults count as time penalties.^[9][14] English dialects recorded full scurry, at full speed, in Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, a flock in confused flight in Gloucestershire, and in Scotland a verb meaning to wander about idly.^[16]

Timeline

• 1579 – to ride out as a scout (obsolete).^[9]
• 1810 – to go rapidly, to move hurriedly.^{[9][10][15][4]}
• 1823 – noun, a hurried movement, haste, bustle.^[9][10][15]
• 1824 – noun, a short, quick race on horseback.^[9]
• 1839 – noun, a fluttering mass of birds, snow or foam driven through the air.^[9]
• 1850 – verb, to cause to go hastily.^[9]
• 1865 – noun, a run made by an animal.^[9]
• 1908 – verb, to hurry over something, to get through it slovenly.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move hurriedly with light, quick steps; to scamper: The mice scurried under the dresser.^[2][8][4]
2. To whirl or move about in a confused, fluttering way: Dry leaves scurried along the pavement.^[2][8][4]
3. To cause to move hurriedly.^[4][9]

Noun

1. The act or sound of scurrying; a hurried or confused movement.^[2][8][4]
2. A short race or sprint, especially in horse racing.^[8][4][9]
3. A jumping contest against the clock in which faults are counted as time penalties.^[4][9]
4. A flurry or whirl of snow or the like.^[8][4][14]

Related words

• hurry-scurry
• hurry
• scurrier

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
16. ^ 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)