Etymology

squat

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Today it means: Relatively short or low, and thick or broad. Full definition →

Middle English squatten ← Old French esquatir ← Latin coāctus
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squat · adjective, noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰ
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰs
  3. Proto-Italic*eks
  4. Latinex
  5. Latinex-
  6. Old Frenches-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*ḱe?
  8. Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm
  9. Proto-Italic*kom
  10. Proto-Italic*kom-
  11. Latinco-
  12. Proto-Indo-European*h₂eǵ-
  13. Proto-Indo-European*h₂éǵeti
  14. Proto-Italic*agō
  15. Latinagō
  16. Latincōgō
  17. Latincoāctus
  18. Old Frenchquatir
  19. Old Frenchesquatir
  20. Middle Englishsquatten
  21. English todaysquat

From Middle English squatten, from Old French esquatir, escatir (“compress, press down, lay flat, crush”), from es- (“ex-”) + quatir (“press down, flatten”), from Vulgar Latin *coactire (“press together, force”), from Latin coāctus, perfect passive participle of cōgō (“force together, compress”). The sense “nothing” is synchronically analyzable as a clipping of diddly-squat, although diachronically the direction of derivation is uncertain.

squat · noun2

  1. Latin · derived fromsquatina
  2. English todaysquat

From Latin squatina.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.