squat

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English squatten (“to crush, squash”),^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French esquatir, also esquater,^[5][2][6] from es-, from Latin ex- (“out”),^[7][4][8] and quatir (“to press down, flatten”),^[7][4][6] from Vulgar Latin *coāctiō (“to press together, force”),^[7][4][8][6] formed on coāctus, the past participle of cōgō (“to compel, drive together”),^[7][8][9] from co- and agō (“to drive”),^[8][6] the source of cogent.^[9] Hoad gives "crouch, hide" among the senses of the Old French verb.^[6] Ayto takes swat as a variant of squat.^[9] The slang noun meaning nothing at all, recorded from 1934, is a shortening of doodly-squat,^[5][10] or of diddly-squat in Green's Dictionary of Slang;^[11] the OED connects it with American slang squat, to defecate,^[5] and Etymonline also thinks it probably suggests defecation.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To crush, flatten or beat out of shape: before 1300, in the Early English Psalter in the OED,^[5] before 1349 in Barnhart and the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[4][7] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to the 13th century.^[3] Wyclif's sermons (1380) have it in the line "this stone shall fall on such men, and squat them all to powder".^[9]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense grew out of the notion of hunching oneself up small and low.^[9] It is first found about 1410, in Edward, Duke of York's Master of Game, of hares sitting close to the ground to avoid being seen, and of seating oneself on the haunches;^[5][4] of people sitting with the legs drawn up beneath them it is recorded from 1573.^[5] The crushing sense survives only in dialect.^[5][10] The adjective, first of a hare crouching, is the old past participle,^[5][4][10] and its sense "short and thick", from 1630, likens the figure to someone squatting^[4] and keeps something of the old sense "flattened".^[9] In American English the verb came to mean settling on land without a legal title: Barnhart dates this to 1800 in the writings of Madison, implied in squatter in 1788.^[4][7] The noun, a heavy fall or bump from about 1350, came to mean the act of squatting in 1584,^[5][4] and in the 20th century it took the senses of the lowering of a moving ship in the water (1905), the illegal occupation of an empty building (1946) and a building so occupied (1975).^[5] The weight-lifting exercise is recorded from 1954 in Etymonline,^[7] and the slang squat, nothing, from 1934, in Zora Neale Hurston.^[5][7]

Timeline

• before 1300 – to crush, flatten, smash.^[5]
• c. 1350 – noun, a heavy fall or bump (now northern dialect).^[5][4]
• c. 1410 – of hares, to crouch close to the ground; reflexive, to sit on the haunches; adjective, seated in a crouching posture.^[5][4]
• 1573 – of people, to sit with the legs drawn up.^[5]
• 1584 – noun, the act of squatting.^[5][4]
• 1630 – adjective, short and thick-set.^[5][4][9]
• 1788 – squatter, a settler without legal title, in Madison.^[4][7]
• 1800 – to settle on land without title.^[4][7]
• 1905 – noun, the settling of a vessel in the water when under way.^[5]
• 1934 – noun, nothing at all.^[5][7]
• 1946 – noun, the illegal occupation of an empty building.^[5]
• 1954 – the weight-lifting exercise.^[7]
• 1975 – a building occupied by squatters.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sit or crouch with the knees fully bent and the weight on the feet, the buttocks on or near the heels: The children squatted round the rock pool.^[8][12][3]
2. Of an animal, to crouch close to the ground, especially to avoid being seen.^[8][12][10]
3. To occupy land or a building without a legal title or payment of rent.^[8][12][3]
4. To occupy public land in order to gain title to it under the law.^[8][3]
5. (weight-lifting) To crouch and rise again while holding a weight, usually a barbell behind the neck.^[12][10]
6. Of a fast-moving boat, to settle lower in the water at the stern; of a vehicle, to sink at the rear.^[10][3]
7. (obsolete) To crush or flatten; to bruise with a blow.^[3][5]

Adjective

1. Short and broad; thick-set: a squat stone tower.^[8][12][10]
2. Sitting in a crouching position.^[3][10]

Noun

1. A squatting posture, or the act of squatting.^[12][3][10]
2. (weight-lifting) An exercise in which one squats and rises again while holding a weight.^[12][10]
3. A building occupied by squatters, or such an occupation.^[12][10][5]
4. (slang, chiefly US) Nothing at all; after a negative, anything: The warranty was worth squat.^[10][11][5]
5. (dialect) A heavy fall or bump; a bruise.^[3][10]

Word family

• squatter
• squatly
• squatness
• squatty

Related words

• cogent
• swat
• diddly-squat

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins