squirt

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English squirten, also squyrten,^[2][3][4] an earlier form being swirten.^[5][6][7] Its origin is uncertain: the OED calls it obscure, and compares Low German swirtjen, swürtjen and East Frisian Low German kwirtjen, which have the same senses.^[8][2] The MED and the American Heritage Dictionary think it may come from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German,^[2][9] and most dictionaries take it as imitative.^{[10][11][12][5][4]} Skeat related the Low German verb to schwirren (“to whir”) and to swirl,^[13] and Dictionary.com also suggests a link with swirl.^[7] Partridge and Klein connect squid with it.^[14][15] The noun is formed from the verb.^[8][3][4] The OED notes that the 14th-century “Nominale” renders a French word by be-squireid, probably an error for be-squirtid.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, "diarrhoea", is recorded before 1398 in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De Proprietatibus Rerum,^[3][16] and in the late 14th century according to Etymonline.^[4] The verb, to spit or squirt water from the mouth, is first found before 1475 in J. Russell's Boke of Nurture: "With youre mouthe ye vse nowþer to squyrt nor spowt".^[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the verb gained the senses "to have diarrhoea" (1530) and "to move swiftly, dart or frisk about" (1570).^[8] The transitive sense, to send out a liquid in a jet, is recorded from 1583.^[8][4] From the early 17th century it could also mean to wet a surface by squirting (1610).^[8] The intransitive sense of a liquid shooting out in a jet is late, from 1858, in Hawthorne.^[8] The noun meant diarrhoea, "the squirt", in the 15th and 16th centuries, as in Gammer Gurton's Needle (1575),^[8][17] and survives in dialect, usually as the squirts.^[8][18][19] It was used for a small syringe from 1530 and for a larger one, especially a fire extinguisher, from 1590,^[8] and Johnson (1755) defined it only as an instrument that sends out a quick stream.^[20] The sense "a small jet of liquid" appears in 1626, in Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum.^[8][3] The figurative use for a small, insignificant, self-assertive person, a whippersnapper, is recorded by 1839 in Etymonline,^[4] in 1848 in American slang,^[21] and in 1859 in Hotten's slang dictionary.^[8] In the Second World War the Royal Air Force used it for a burst of gunfire (1942) and, punning on jet, for a jet aircraft (1945).^[8] In Westmorland and Yorkshire dialect the verb, also as swirt, meant to dart or frisk about, and in south Cheshire the noun meant an insignificant person.^[19]

Timeline

• before 1398 – noun, diarrhoea.^[3][4]
• before 1475 – verb, to squirt water from the mouth.^[2][8]
• 1530 – a small syringe; verb, to have diarrhoea.^[8]
• 1570 – to move quickly, dart about.^[8]
• 1583 – to send out a liquid in a jet.^[8][4]
• 1590 – a large squirt used as a fire extinguisher.^[8]
• 1626 – a small jet of liquid.^[8][3][4]
• 1839 – a small, insignificant, self-assertive person.^[4] Dalzell dates this sense to 1848 in the US,^[21] and the OED to 1859.^[8]
• 1858 – of a liquid, to come out in a jet.^[8]
• 1891 – a sea squirt.^[8]
• 1942 – a burst of gunfire, in Royal Air Force slang.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To force a liquid out of a narrow opening in a thin, fast stream: He squirted ketchup over his chips.^[12][18][8]
2. Of a liquid, to come out of a narrow opening in such a stream.^[12][18][8]
3. To wet or spatter something with liquid sent out in this way.^[12][8]
4. To move or dart suddenly and quickly.^[18][8]

Noun

1. A thin jet of liquid, or an act of squirting: a squirt of soap.^[12][18][8]
2. An instrument for squirting liquid, such as a syringe.^[12][18][8]
3. (informal) A small, insignificant or impudent person, especially a young or short one.^[12][21][4]
4. (dialect) Diarrhoea, usually as the squirts.^[18][8][19]

Word family

• squirter
• squirtingly
• unsquirted
• sea squirt
• squirt gun
• squirting cucumber

Related words

• squid
• swirl

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ 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
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
15. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
16. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
19. ^ a b c 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)
20. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
21. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge