scat
UK[skæt]US[skæt]
v
To go away quickly; used as an imperative to tell someone to leave.
n
A style of jazz singing characterized by improvised vocal sounds instead of words.
n
Animal droppings, especially of a wild carnivore.
Etymology
The imperative verb "scat," meaning to go away, likely originated in the 19th century as an Americanism, possibly a shortened form of "scatter." The jazz term "scat" emerged in the 1920s, imitative of the rapid, nonsensical syllables used in this singing style. The noun for animal feces is a 20th-century euphemistic shortening of the Greek-derived "scatology," which comes from skōr (genitive skatos), meaning "dung." These three distinct etymological streams converged by chance into a single, versatile English spelling.
Analysis
The word 'scat' is a simplex word with no separable morphemes in its modern English form. Its origins are varied and independent for its different meanings.
Examples
The cat got into the kitchen, so I shouted, "Scat!"
Ella Fitzgerald was a master of scat, weaving intricate melodies with her voice alone.
Researchers analyzed the scat to determine the wolf's diet.