skitter

[prettygoodword]

skitter (SKIT-er) - v., to go, run, or glide lightly or rapidly, usually with frequent light contacts or changes of direction; to make a scratching or scuttling noise while, or as if, skittering.


Running rats and mice often skitter. The stem of this isn't entirely lost, but is regional dialect: N. England and Scotland skite, to run rapidly, probably of Old Norse origin -- skitter is attested from around 1840, which makes it a surprisingly late formation, unless it was also an unattested regional form.


And that's the end of this fifth and, alas, final week of frequentives. I have one more frequentive I want to run, which I'll post Monday before returning to the usual unsorted heap.

---L.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

I’m reminded of a rather different meaning of the word, from a scene in The Grapes of Wrath when the residents in Unit Four of the Weedpatch migrant worker camp are confronted about their toilet paper consumption:

"They ain't got the right! Four-five sheets is enough. What's the matter'th 'em?"

The confessor bleated, "Skitters. All five of 'em. We been low on money. They et green grapes. They all five got the howlin' skitters. Run out ever' ten minutes." She defended them, "But they ain't stealin' it."

Jessie sighed. "You should a tol'," she said. "You got to tell. Here's Unit Four sufferin' shame 'cause you never tol'. Anybody can git the skitters."

[prettygoodword]

Heh.