skedaddle

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>... Anyone out there know anything more about this word?

Don't really *know* anything much, but there is no reason why "skedaddle"
shouldn't have predated the Civil War, in Scottish or Irish or other
dialect. Compare the OED entries for "scuddle", "scuttle", and the Scots
variant "skiddle" [from "scuddle" probably] in both senses "spill" and
"scurry" -- parallel to the two senses of "skedaddle". I suppose
"skedaddle" to be originally a 'fanciful' augmentation of "skiddle" or
something similar or an amalgam of "scuddle" + "scatter" or something like
that. As for "scuddle" (in at least one sense), it is *possibly* originally
a reference to the tail of a fleeing rabbit ("scut").

-- Doug Wilson