Perhaps it is a result of the strange running culture that I grew up in, but I have a vastly different interpretation of the phrase “pop a squat” than my roommate apparently. I’ll open it up to you normal people with the hypothetic situation…which happened and wasn’t particularly strange when it happened, but I’m calling it hypothetical to mystify it.
So one of your roommates comes over with his girlfriend and your other roommate suggests that she “pop a squat” on the couch next to him…that’s the entire situation, it was anticlimatic if nothing else. Is this an appropriate usage of this phrase, and if not what would be an appropriate usage?
Words 
The correct phraseology is actually (I think), “Cop a squat.” As spoken by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman to Richard Gere, when she invites him to take off his socks & sit down on the grass with her.
In light of my traditional definition, these situations become unintentional comedy. Not particularly refined unintentional comedy, but amusing nonetheless.
I believe that your second roommate invited your first roommate’s girlfriend to come to where he was on the couch, drop her drawers, and poop right next to him.
I’ve never heard “cop a squat” before. You may be right though. I don’t think you really want someone “popping a squat” on your couch. The cleanup could be a bit of a problem.
“Hey Susie, why don’t you come over hear and drop a deuce on the couch”
You see, that was always the phrase someone used out on runs when they had to go take a crap in the woods. I am almost certain that it means “why don’t you come on over and take a dump?”
I would contend that the squat portion indicates that this is not a traditional defecation either…this is a nature dump to me.
My guess is that the original phrase was “cop a squat”, but over the years it was misheard — largely because the use of ‘cop’ as a verb has dramatically waned — and gradually became “pop a squat.” I mean, all the original phrase means, literally, is “take a seat.” “‘Pop’ a squat” makes no sense whatsoever, linguistically. It just caught on because little kids didn’t know that “cop” could be a verb.
Besides, I wouldn’t mess with the person who wrote Pretty Woman.
I think that in the parlance of our time, it is appropriate to say that one has popped a squat or copped a feel; meaning that you have either just taken a moment out of your day to defecate somewhere (usually not in a bathroom, possibly on the 50 yard line) hurriedly, or that you have taken a moment out of your day to grope your (possibly unsuspecting but hopefully well endowed) date.
I’ve assembled a small reference list:
COP A BROOM — Cop a broom is Black-American slang for to leave hurriedly.
COP A DRILL — Cop a drill is Black-American slang for to leave walking.
COP A FEEL — Cop a feel is American slang for to grope someone sexually.
COP A FLOWER POT — Cop a flower pot is British slang for to be severely reprimanded.
COP A PLEA — Cop a plea is American slang for to plead guilty to a lesser offence than the one charged (plea bargain).
COP A SQUAT — Cop a squat is Black-American slang for to sit down.
I think the kids usage was correct. Right or wrong, Id know he was asking me to sit down and not to hit him off with a Pasadena Mudslide.
One of your roommates has a girlfriend? I thought you had one picked out for me and one picked out for Laura! What’s the dealio?
i say “pop a squat on the pot” which means i have to go to the bathroom. i’ve been saying pop a squat forever.
I dare say you even invented the phrase. You’re like a pioneer.
I wonder if Vegas has odds on “The name of the originator of the phrase ‘pop a squat'”. If so, I’d be exceedingly rich with “Mimi”. Wait a second, are you one of AE’s children? I’m your Uncle Eric, it’s a pleasure.
She isn’t, actually. She could be my grandmother, but my Mimi is dead, and even when she was alive, she was the most dignified and refined soul imaginable and would absolutely never discuss the parlance of pooping. In fact, she was so refined I don’t think she ever did poop.
Which may account for why she’s dead. Gracious and proper, to be sure, but still dead.
I have always heard the phrase “pop a squat” to mean come sit down over here.
I grew up in Michigan saying “pop a squat.” My friends said it, too, and we just meant “take a seat.” I wonder if it’s not somewhat of a regional dialect thing. My boyfriend from Montana thought it was nuts and had no idea what I was talking about the first time he heard me say it. It makes sense that it started out “cop a squat” and then perhaps just evolved or devolved, however you want to look at it, from there.
I have been saying pop a squat at college for quite a while. People always laugh or ask what it means. I’ve had a few friends debate with me over it meaning to go to the bathroom.
Now I’m confused on whether I should say “pop” or “cop.” Maybe I’ll say it fast and no one will know which one I said.
In the 1970′s when friends came over one would say, ”Come on in, cop-a-squat.”
The Online Slang Dictionary defines cop-a-squat as inviting someone to take a seat, sit down and relax.
In some circles its still used today.
At Cop-A-Squat.com we invite people to come in, cop-a-squat and let’s talk…