The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-09-19
tEDADDLE."
Homer Uss Ancestor to Describe
the Flish Psnelope's suitors.

the Flish } Penelope's suitors.
To THE ED4 or THE sus--s,r: The
American dict ries in general register
that sense on be word "skedaddle''
which they der as ito fee in haste,
take TO Night OF American origin.
One stismatisesi, use AZ "slanR.
U. S.; another racterizes IL Eng
lish dialect. act IL both state
ments are open allenge and serve
to show how easily q NAV he misled.
the WORD Is not pr cial English. nor
10 IL American slan The Scots have
been using IL ior " but the early
English ana scott photographers
failed to record 1t. Nmeaninr noted
above Is seconoery eaning Of the
word. the primary md ing being ito
cause to run, az q la out of
receptacle; to scatter.A Dr. Charles
Mackay included II IN GLOSSARY of
L'owiand scotch as TEL applied to
tho wasteful overflow Of t\nilk in the
pals when the milk maid>p not bal
anco them properly" Frd\ the Low
lands Of Scotland the termv carried
across the Tweed and found wav to
the Tyne, where It has been Wise ever
since. For this reason 1t some
times been characterized as nesids
term. and to this may be attf ted its
classification by slossarlsts and xicoe-
raphers as a dialectal English I'd
However, long before Dr. ekay
registered IL, Loru HILL IN lr to
the London Isnos (octoper e'e2).
pointed out that the word was 1eat
Scotch" Even so. 1t was not brouA to
the attention OF Dominic johnnie I'VE.
son while he was making his fa1ps
dictionary OF the scottish iahsfe
tsos-S. probably because It's V
familiarity had Drought II into conteH.
In its Gaelic form II was not unknv
to MscEachen' VINO gave ssioeli t
"a spill or Splash as OF wa.er'
"sgidealach' (adJective-pertaining
a spill or spiash). Transilterated'
noun becomes snoeA. "here
Scots got 1t from they nave peen u
canny to tell US.
About forty years ago an enterpri
ing student asserted tnat TINS woro W
Irish, and claimed that ne had round
In passage In the irish version OF
Bible. ana that there IL was render
"ssedador' and meant scattered.
this as It may. EDWARD oHelliy' L
John O'Donovan and L. ONeil Lane
not include this word In the Vocap
laries or their respective lrish-Engji
dictionaries. Out give ssaoii omper
tive-scatter) ana sgaoiiim tvero-
scatter). with sgaoileadh tnoun
scattering) and "sgaoilte' (particiT
and adjective-scattered). A Weishm'
has claimer 1t as welsh ana Civ
"ysgudaw, to scud about, as PROOF
origin.
In 1854 Goodrich and Porter told
that the word was said to be Swedi
ana DANISH to which DIR. W. A. Craig
OF the New English dictionary has add
uSll) In MS Work: But there are
forms In Swedish and Danish to be 81
nciently near to be taken into account
Yet In Swedish "skeda' means "to Sc
arate," and "der' means "a part" Will
In Danish and Norwegian "skede" meal
ITO separate; part" (See v. E. Om'
"Svensk-Engelsk Hand-Orbok," Stoc
holm. 1881. and A. Larsen Dams
Norsk-Engelsk Ordbog) Copenhagen al
Christiania, 1910.
The indefatisable John Russell Bar
lett preserved for US the fact that In
time the origin or 'skedaddle' VI
traced to Greece. one writer claiming
have discovered It's etymology in t
word "skedanumi'" ito be scattered;
disperse'-a word used by Herodotu
the earliest Greek historian in the stri
sense OF the term w.: 1879, and Tn
cydides CIV: 81 ND. Homer used Il
aorist "eskedasa" or "skedasa" in I
Had isl7D and "sedason laon" I
scattering; dispensing" Other write
have pointed out that this word ms
be found also in the works Of 4Esch
lus, Hesiod, SophocleS and Xenopho