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

[James C Stalker]

Scootch over,more common than down, is part of my vocabulary: KY, b. 1940.
But, I've lived in NY, NC, WI, and MI (forever). I learned skoosh later, I
think, but memory is unreliable.  My guess?  Scootch is not a dervative of
skoosh.  The scoot origin is a better guess.  why the ch, the original
question?  One way to adhere to the Politeness Principle is to alter the
phonology: Geez (Jesus), shucks (shit), gosh darn (God damn).  Scootch is a
mitigated form of scoot, a polite request, rather than an order.

Jim Stalker

J. Eulenberg writes:

> I failed to read the entire set of discussions.  In addition to my
> friend's "skosh," I have certainly heard and used "scootch," as in
> "scootch down this way" and "scootch together" both.  Is this my lingering
> Dallas "dialect" again?
>
> Julia Niebuhr Eulenberg <eulenbrg at u.washington.edu>
>
> On Wed, 23 Feb 2005, Patty Davies wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Patty Davies <patty at CRUZIO.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Query about slang "scootch"-- Why -ch?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------
>>
>> 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
>>
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University