"obscene literature," 1876, with -logy "treatise, study" + Greek skat-, stem of skor (genitive skatos) "excrement," from PIE *sker- "excrement, dung" (source also of Latin stercus "dung"), literally "to cut off;" see shear (v.), and compare shit (v.). Related: Scatological (1886).
scarred
scary
scat
scathe
scathing
scatology
scatter
scatterbrain
scattering
scattershot
scavenge