scatter

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To throw or spread things over a wide area.

   She scattered the seeds across the garden.

2. 2
   verb

   To make people or animals move quickly in different directions.

   The crowd scattered when the storm began.

From Middle English scateren, skateren, also schateren, * probably a variant of shatter, which is imitative; * or from Old English *sceaterian, probably akin to a dialect of Old Norse, possibly ultimately related to Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split, shatter”). Compare Middle Dutch scheteren (“to scatter”), Low German schateren, Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”); and is apparently remotely akin to Ancient Greek σκεδάννυμι (skedánnumi, “scatter, disperse”). and Tocharian B kät- (“to scatter, sow seeds”). Doublet of shatter.

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