scudding

"clouds scudding by", wonder who invented the word scudding and why. what were they doing at the time? were they standing on a hill or a beach or a plain....
was an autumn wind blowing, whispering of winter...
did they look up at the sky and see the clouds moving swiftly on their monumental way and think...
look at those clouds scudding by!

answers.com tells me the word possibly originates from scut, middle english, meaning rabbit's tail. now, the word starts to make sense, white, fluffy and fast moving. now here, now gone. perhaps he/she was out and about, hunting rabbits..
glanced up at the sky, the clouds brought to mind the fast disappearing white, fluffy tail of his/her prey.

the noun scut has one meaning, "a short erect tail as that of a hare, rabbit, deer".

scut n. informal means "routine or tedious work often viewed as menial" short for scutwork. look up scutwork and lo and behold scut means worthless person, perhaps from scout...

enough already, a person could be at this all day. following the trail from one word to another. the history of language...fascinating.

http://www.answers.com/topic/scud?cat=technology

http://www.answers.com/scudding

http://www.answers.com/topic/scut