Etymology
1. c.1410, "crouch on the heels," from O.Fr.
esquatir "press down, lay flat, crush," from
es- "out" (from L.
ex-) + O.Fr.
quatir "press down, flatten," from V.L.
*coactire "press together, force," from L.
coactus, pp. of
cogere "to compel, curdle, collect" (see cogent). Slang sense of "nothing at all" first attested 1934, probably suggestive of squatting to defecate. The adjective sense of "short, thick" dates from 1630.
Squatter "settler who occupies land without legal title" first recorded 1788; in ref. to paupers or homeless people in uninhabited buildings, it is recorded from 1880.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ
4. Proto-Indo-European *-s
5. Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs
6. Proto-Italic *eks
7. Latin ex
8. Latin ex-
9. Old French es-
10. Proto-Indo-European *ḱe?
11. Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm
12. Proto-Italic *kom
13. Proto-Italic *kom-
14. Latin co-
15. Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-
16. Proto-Indo-European *-eti
17. Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti
18. Proto-Italic *agō
19. Latin agō
20. Latin cōgō
21. Latin coāctusder.
22. Old French quatir
23. Old French esquatirder.
24. Middle English squatten
25. English squat
26. 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”).
27. The sense “nothing” is synchronically analyzable as a clipping of diddly-squat, although diachronically the direction of derivation is uncertain. See: Middle English '
squatten'.
Verbs referencing "squat"
French
squatter, Spanish
agachar, Cebuano iskwat.