scatter v.

mid-14c. (implied in toschatered), "scatter, disperse, throw about," transitive, probably a variant of Middle English scateren (see scatter (v.)), perhaps reflecting confusion of sk- and sh- from Norse influence. Compare Old Dutch schetteren Low German schateren. Formations such as scatter-brained had parallel forms in shatter-brained, etc.

The meaning "break in pieces, as by a single blow" is from mid-15c. Intransitive sense of "fly apart, become scattered, be broken in fragments" is from 1560s. Related: Shattered; shattering. Carlyle (1841) used shatterment "act or state of shattering or being shattered." Shatters "fragments" is from 1630s.

also scatter-brain, "thoughtless, giddy person; one incapable of serious, connected thought," 1790, from adjective scatter-brained "careless, giddy" (1764); see scatter (v.) + brain (n.). Scattered in the figurative mental sense is by 1620s, and the use of scattering for "mental distraction" dates to mid-15c. For the formation, compare scatter-good "spendthrift" (early 13c. as a surname).