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SCAMP

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 287 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SCAMP , an idle, worthless See also:

rascal; in earlier (18th cent.) usage especially applied as a cant See also:term for a See also:highway robber, a See also:foot-See also:pad, later of one who incurs debts and See also:decamps without paying them. The word appears to be derived from a shortened See also:form of " scamper," to run away, decamp, to move quickly or nimbly; which is generally taken to be a military See also:slang word i It was formerly called diagrydion, probably from Sarspu, a See also:tear, in allusion to the manner in which the juice exudes from the incised See also:root.adapted from Dutch schampen, to See also:escape; O.Fr. escamper; Ital. scampare; See also:Lat. ex, out of, campus, See also:field of See also:battle, hence a vagabond deserter. This word must be distinguished from " scamp," to do See also:work in a hasty, careless manner, which is apparently a variant of " skimp," " skimpy," and is to be referred to the root seen in O. Nor. skammr, See also:short; Dig.

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