scarper

Signification (Anglais)

To run away; to flee; to escape.

Concepts

disparaitre

disparaître

échapper

se perdre

déguerpir

fuir en courant

prendre ses jambes à son coup

Synonymes

escape

run away

break away

run

scat

turn tail

hightail it

lam

head for the hills

fly the coop

take to the woods

bunk

beat it

go

go around

make off

perish

push off

slink

vanish

waste

forfeit

blow

bolt

bugger off

clear out

decamp

deliquesce

disappear

dissolve

fade

fade away

flee

Prononcé comme (IPA)

/ˈskɑː.pə/

Étymologie (Anglais)

Appartenant à italien: scappare

Appartenant à anglais: escape

In summary

Probably from Italian scappare (“to run away”), influenced by Cockney rhyming slang Scapa Flow = go.
* In the chapter "Punch Talk" of 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, Vol 3, the author discusses the slang language used by travelling Italian Punch and Judy men and entertainers, which had English, Italian, Jewish and traveller roots. He states that "scarper" is Punch Talk for "to get away quickly" (from the police or other authority) and derives from the Italian scappare or escappare (compare English escape).
* An alternative etymology traces the word "scarper" to the Cockney rhyming slang Scapa Flow (“go”) (as in, e.g., "go away").