scarper

Etymology

The verb is probably borrowed from Italian scappare ("to run away, escape, flee"), which came from Vulgar Latin *excappāre ("to escape"). This in turn was formed from Latin ex- (a prefix meaning 'away; out') plus 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")), plus -āre (the present active infinitive of -ō, a suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). Around World War I (1914–1918), the English word was also shaped by the Cockney rhyming slang term Scapa Flow ("to go"). It is a doublet of escape and scape. The noun comes from the verb.