squat: [13] Someone who squats is etymologically ‘forced together’ – and indeed the verb originally meant ‘squash, flatten’ in English (‘This stone shall fall on such men, and squat them all to powder’, John Wyclif, Sermons 1380). Not until the early 15th century did the modern sense (based on the notion of hunching oneself up small and low) emerge. The word was adapted from Old French esquatir, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix es- and quatir ‘press flat’.
This in turn came from Vulgar Latin *coactīre ‘press together’, a verb based on Latin coāctus, the past participle of cōgere ‘force together’ (from which English gets cogent [17]). The adjectival use of squat for ‘thickset’, which preserves some of the word’s original connotations of being ‘flattened’, is first recorded in 1630. Swat ‘slap’ [17] originated as a variant of squat. => cogent, swat
squat (v.)
mid-14c., "to crush;" early 15c., "crouch on the heels," from Old French esquatir, escatir "compress, press down, lay flat, crush," from es- "out" (see ex-) + Old French quatir "press down, flatten," from Vulgar Latin *coactire "press together, force," from Latin coactus, past participle of cogere "to compel, curdle, collect" (see cogent). Meaning "to settle on land without any title or right" is from 1800. Related: Squatted; squatting.
squat (n.)
c. 1400, "bump, heavy fall," from squat (v.). Meaning "posture of one who squats" is from 1570s; that of "act of squatting" is from 1580s. Slang noun sense of "nothing at all" first attested 1934, probably suggestive of squatting to defecate. Weight-lifting sense is from 1954.
squat (adj.)
early 15c., "crouch on the heels, in a squatting position," from squat (v.)). Sense of "short, thick" dates from 1620s.
实用例句
1. Eddie was a short squat fellow in his forties with thinning hair.
埃迪四十多岁，矮矮胖胖的，头发日渐稀疏。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He bent to a squat and gathered the puppies on his lap.
他弯腰蹲下，把小狗们都抱到自己腿上。
来自柯林斯例句
3. After returning from Paris, David moved to a squat in Brixton.
从巴黎回来后，戴维搬进了布里克斯顿的一座空房里住下了。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Thomas now faces eviction from his squat.
托马斯现在要被从他占住的房子里驱赶出来。
来自柯林斯例句
5. For this exercise you need to get into a squat.
