Etymograph

English

scat

Scat comes from Old English sċeatt ‘property, goods’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *skattaz ‘cattle, kine, wealth’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skattaz‘cattle, kine, wealth’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċeatt‘property, goods’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scet
  4. Englishtodayscat

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skattaz‘cattle, kine, wealth’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150sċeatt‘property, goods’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scet
  4. Englishtodayscat

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *skattaz

Another origin of scat

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sekH-‘to separate, cut off, distinguish’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*sóḱr̥‘excrement, dung’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*sḱṓrreconstructedcollective of *sóḱr̥
  4. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*skṓrreconstructed
  5. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEσκῶρskôr‘excrement’uncertain
  6. Englishtodayscat

Both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster suggest derivation from Ancient Greek σκῶρ (skôr, “excrement”), compare English scato-, but Random House Dictionary suggests that the popular character of the word makes this unlikely. Perhaps from English dialectal scat (‘to scatter, fling, bespatter’), or an alteration of shit, which is also used for "drugs, heroin".

Today it means

noun A tax; tribute.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *skattaz / scat

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