To scatter or splash liquid or small particles onto a surface in an irregular, messy way.
Possibly from Middle Dutch 'spatteren' or related to 'spat', which is imitative in origin. The word emerged in English around the 1600s to describe the sound and action of liquid hitting surfaces.
The word 'spatter' is onomatopoetic—it actually sounds like the action it describes, which is why crime scene investigators use 'spatter patterns' to understand what happened during violent events.
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