origins

Don't worry, I'm not going to get into some Darwinesquestyle meanderings on life, death, islands, turtles, lizards, super novas or coconuts. I'm just wondering about the word "skidaddle." Or, "skedaddle." I don't think there's any other possible spellings.

What does this word want? I was with Rice at a lousy puck-chasing, stick-bashing game of chance tonight in the Queen City and discussed many things, among them, this word. Well, it came up and we said a few things about it and then I said I'd write about it.

It suggests a sort of lightheartedness, an airy quality. Perhaps flippant, but I think more light-in-ones-loafers sort of style. But I think the word can be said by (or refer to) brutes and queens alike, so the loafers analogy might have to go.

Does it come from the ancient Swiss winter sport yodle? "Ski-daddle! I'm coming down the mountain now."

Is it derived from the ebonics for papa, "SKi-dADDle OU-tta heAh fo' you NACH'ral FAHdduh kutz yoo" I wonder?

Apparently, it made its debut during the Civil War: "No sooner did the traitors discover their approach than they skiddaddled."

John Hotten argued in his Dictionary of Modern Slang in 1874, that the word derived from the Greek skedannumi, to “retire tumultuously." But, another widely argued origin is that it's a Scottish or Northern English dialect word (sgedadol) meaning to spill or scatter, in particular to spill milk.

Also:

+ to have your way with: "I'm going to skidaddle that girl when she comes here on Saturday"

+ Somethin u say to sumone ya hate; to bounce (leave): "Eh Yo, SKIDADLE..now!" (note a different spelling, using only ONE "d")

+ run away, as if in a panic

+ To leave hastily: bolt, get out, run, clear out, get, hotfoot, hightail, scram, vamoose, beat it, hightail it, hotfoot it, make tracks

+ or this one which replaces the "d" with "t": A country-bumpkin term that means to leave, generally rather quickly: "We need to skidattle on outta her', or else them-ther farma' might cat' on!"

+ or this one, changing the word almost entirely: "oh s%@!, here comes da police, lets skiddable"

I have to admit, I thought this would have been a shorter post, not realizing the work that has already been compiled on what I thought was my unique word of the day. Turns out it was a lot of people's unique word of the day at one time or another.