Query about slang "scootch"-- Why -ch?

[Patty Davies]

At 03:17 PM 2/23/05, you wrote:
>   The wife of a colleague has asked me about slang "scootch" (move a
> small amount), a term I had never heard before. The term clearly derives
> from "scoot," but how did -ch get added to it?
>
>      The Online slang Dictionary
> (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wrader/slang/s.html)
>says only:
>  scootch   v   1. move a small amount; SCOOT. ("Scootch your seat over
> here."   "We'll just scootch them together.")  Submitted by Kay Turner,
> Bella Vista, AR, USA, 28-11-2002.
>
>    Meanwhile, the woman who asked me about "scootch" indicates that her
> family has been familiar with the term for some time:
>
>"[...]It sounds like a blend to me.  But blending "scoot" with what?  I
>can't think of a "ch" word that means to move over a little without
>picking the object or oneself up off the surface.  I also have the
>impression that it's used - at least in my family - to mean to move over a
>smaller distance than a "scoot" would require.  Like a "smidgen."
>
>Any ideas?  She's 90 [i.e. her mother-in-law] - just had a big celebration
>for her in KC over the weekend, and sure enough, the word came up - often
>- and she mentioned she surely would like to know how and when we started
>putting the "ch" on "scoot" - and why.  She's mentioned this in previous
>years, but with family from all over the country and Canada there - all
>using the term - it became a real curiosity for us all.  Would please an
>old lady who is an appreciator of words to have an answer! [...]"
>
>  Would anyone in ads-l have any suggestions on this?
>
>Gerald Cohen


I don't have any information on origin but I have heard & used 'scootch'
all my life -  I'm almost 50, West coast, southern Calif .  More often used
with scootching over rather than scootch down.

Patty