squatter

squatter¹ to flap through water

Etymology

The word for flapping or struggling through water is probably imitative,^[2][3][4] and the Shorter Oxford compares swatter.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged instead takes it as probably of Scandinavian origin, akin to Swedish dialect skvättra (“to squander”), Danish skvatte (“to sprinkle”) and Icelandic skvetta (“to squirt”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Perhaps "to be fussily busy": 1593, in G. Harvey's New Letter, a rare use whose sense the OED marks as doubtful.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its early uses were short-lived: Florio's dictionary of 1598 has a sense the OED equates with squitter, to have diarrhoea, last recorded in 1611,^[2][6] and Cotgrave's of 1611 has "to scatter, disperse, spill", last recorded in 1653 and surviving only in Scotland.^[2][3] The surviving sense, to go along through water or wet with much splashing or flapping, is first found in Burns, of a drake in his Address to the Deil, "Awa ye squatter'd like a drake".^[2][7] From 1808, in Jamieson's Scots dictionary, it also meant to flutter or struggle in water or mud,^[2] and a noun for a spatter or loud fluttering noise is recorded from before 1813.^[2][5] The word is now chiefly Scots.^[3] The English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Westmorland, Yorkshire and Cheshire, including "to crouch" and, in East Yorkshire, "to squander"; in mid-Yorkshire it meant to squirt, and in Forfarshire a squatter was a large collection of small things.^[7]

Timeline

• 1593 – perhaps to be fussily busy (obsolete).^[2][6]
• 1598 – to have diarrhoea (obsolete by 1611).^[2][6]
• 1611 – to scatter, disperse, spill (obsolete by 1653).^[2][6]
• 1786 – to make one's way through water with much splashing, in Burns.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1785.^[5]
• 1808 – to flutter or struggle in water or soft mud.^[2]
• before 1813 – noun, a spatter or loud fluttering noise.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (chiefly Scots) To go through water or wet with much splashing or flapping: The ducks squattered away across the loch.^[5][2][3]
2. To flutter or struggle in water or soft mud.^[2][3]
3. (obsolete, 1611–53) To scatter or disperse.^[2][3]
4. (obsolete, 1598–1611) To have diarrhoea.^[2][3]
5. (obsolete, 1593) To be fussily busy.^[2][3]

Noun

1. A sputtering; a loud fluttering noise.^[2][5]

squatter² one who occupies land or property without title

Etymology tree of squatter²

inherited borrowed derived

English squat

English squatter

From the same root · squatter²

English swat ← squat

Etymology

The word for the settler is formed from English squat + -er.^[2][8][5][3] Squat is from Old French esquatir (“to press down, flatten”), from es- and quatir,^[8][2] ultimately through an unattested verb built on the past participle of Latin cōgō (“to compel, collect”).^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A settler with no legal title to the land he occupies: 1788, in a letter of N. Gorham in the papers of Madison.^[2][8][5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1775–85.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The noun began in America, for settlers on land not yet surveyed, and Etymonline dates the corresponding sense of the verb only from 1800.^[2][8] Bartlett (1848) listed it as an American word, for one who settles on new land without a title.^[10] It came into general use for any unauthorized occupant of land by 1849, in Macaulay,^[2] and for those occupying uninhabited buildings, often as an organized group, from 1880.^[2][8] The word is recorded in Australia from 1828, for someone holding Crown land without title,^[11] and evidence given in New South Wales in 1835 calls such people promoters of crime and receivers of stolen goods;^[12] but from the 1840s it meant a tenant of Crown pastoral land, and then a wealthy grazier on a large scale.^[2][11] These squatters became so powerful that squattocracy was coined for them, recorded from 1843 in one account and 1846 in another.^[11][8] In United States history squatter sovereignty was the right claimed by settlers in new territories to decide for themselves on slavery.^[3] In South Africa it was applied to Black people living on White-owned farms, as in a 1936 Act, and now to people in shack settlements.^[13] The literal "one who squats" also yielded an Australian pigeon (1872) and, in cricket, a ball that stays low (1955).^[2]

Timeline

• 1788 – a settler without legal title to the land.^[2][8][5]
• 1821 – figurative use, in Coleridge.^[2]
• 1824 – a person or animal that squats.^[2]
• 1828 – in Australia, one occupying Crown land without title.^[11]
• 1840 – in Australia and New Zealand, a tenant of Crown pastoral land; a large-scale sheep farmer.^[2]
• 1849 – an unauthorized occupant of land.^[2]
• 1872 – in Australia, a bronze-wing pigeon.^[2]
• 1880 – an illegal occupant of an uninhabited building.^[2][8]
• 1936 – in South Africa, a Black person living on White-owned farm land.^[13]
• 1944 – in African American slang, a stool or chair.^[14]
• 1955 – in cricket, a ball that stays low on pitching.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who occupies land or property without legal title: Squatters had moved into the empty warehouse.^[15][5][2]
2. A person who settles lawfully on government land in order to acquire title to it.^[5]
3. (Australia and New Zealand) Formerly, a tenant of Crown land used for grazing; now a large-scale sheep or cattle farmer.^{[15][2][16][17]}
4. (South Africa) A person living in an unofficial shack settlement; historically, a Black person living on White-owned farm land.^[13]
5. A person or animal that squats.^[2][18][16]
6. (Australia) A bronze-wing pigeon.^[2][5]
7. (cricket) A ball that stays low on pitching; a shooter.^[2][3]

Word family

• squatterdom