scatter · Contextualize

Etymology

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.

derived from *skey-✻
inherited from *sceaterian✻
inherited from scateren

Definitions

1
To (cause to) separate and go in different directions
To (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse.
- The crowd scattered in terror.
- Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths.
2
To distribute loosely as by sprinkling.
- Her ashes were scattered at the top of a waterfall.
- Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains, / Their scattered cottages, and ample plains?
To deflect (radiation or particles).
›+ 7 more definitionsshow fewer
1. To occur or fall at widely spaced intervals.
2. 5
  To frustrate, disappoint, and overthrow.
  - to scatter hopes or plans
3. 6
  To be dispersed upon.
  - Desiccated stalks scattered the fields.
  - […] its beauty is obscured by the environmental waste and loose trash that scatter the countryside.
4. Of a pitcher
  Of a pitcher: to keep down the number of hits or walks.
5. 8
  To leave.
  - When the police showed up, I scattered.
6. The act of scattering or dispersing.
7. 10
  A collection of dispersed objects.
  - The Los Angeles Basin evolved as a mobility surface principally through the combination of an initial system of electric railways connecting a scatter of agricultural settlement settlements.
  - A broad scatter of kurgan graves in the steppes contained imported Tripolye C2 pots (among other imported pot types) and a few, like Serezlievka, also contained Tripolye-like schematic rod-headed figurines.
  - The plot of all our sea-level index points shows a scatter of data points that do not overlap […]

The neighborhood

Derived

antiscatter, bescatter, rescatter, scatterable, scatteration, scatter band, scatterbrain, scatterbrained, scatter-brained, scatter buffet, scatter cushion, scatter diagram, scatterer, scattergood, scattergram, scattergraph, scattergun, scatterhoard, scatter hoarding, scatteringly, scatterling, scatterometer, scatterometric, scatterometry, scatter-plot, scatterplot, scatter point, scatter rug, scattershot, scatter site, scattersome, scatter-story, scatter to the four winds, scattery, squander, tropospheric scatter, upscatter

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at scatter. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

A definitional loop anchored at scatter. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at scatter

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.