The word 'splatter' is a relatively recent formation in English, emerging in the late 18th century. It is an expressive, onomatopoeic word created to mimic the sound of something wet, like mud or paint, hitting a surface with force. The core 'splat' evokes the sharp, wet impact, while the '-er' suffix forms a frequentative verb, suggesting a repeated or scattered action. This vivid sound symbolism directly links the word's form to its meaning of liquid being dispersed messily, making its modern abstract sense intuitively clear from its auditory roots.

This is an onomatopoeic formation, imitative of the sound of a liquid hitting a surface. The core element 'splat' is sound-symbolic, and the '-er' and '-ed' are standard English verb-forming and past-tense inflectional suffixes, respectively.