Other forms: scampered, scampering, scampers
To scamper is to run with quick short light steps. Scamper away, scampering children, the mouse scampered.
It is used of small animals and of children, and it is entirely affectionate — nothing frightening ever scampers. The lightness is the point. Note that the origin is uncertain and may come through Dutch from a word meaning to run away, the same root as scamp and decamp.
1verbscamperTo run with quick short light steps.
“The squirrel scampered up the tree when the dog barked.”
scamper is a light running.
Scamper appears in 1687 and its origin is uncertain, possibly from a word meaning to run away. Decamp is a relative.
Vulgar Latin
*excappare
Old French
escamper
Dutch
schamperen
English, today
scamper
First attested in 1687. Origin uncertain, but possibly from Dutch schamperen, from Old French escamper, from Vulgar Latin excappare.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Ways of Moving