scarper

Meanings

1. Chiefly in scarper the letty: to depart quickly or run away from (a place); to flee.
2. To depart quickly; to escape, to flee, to run away.

1. Chiefly in do a scarper: an act of departing quickly or running away; an escape, a flight.

Etymology

The verb is probably borrowed from Italian scappare (“to run away, escape, flee”), from Vulgar Latin *excappāre (“to escape”), from Latin ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + cappa (“(Late Latin) cape, cloak (usually with a hood); (Medieval Latin) cap; headwear”) (further etymology uncertain, probably ultimately from caput (“head”), from dialectal Proto-Indo-European *káput (“head”)) + -āre (the present active infinitive of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). Around World War I (1914–1918), the English word was influenced by the Cockney rhyming slang term Scapa Flow (“to go”). Doublet of escape and scape. The noun is derived from the verb.