scad

Etymology

Unknown, early 17th century, perhaps related to shad. In sense “large amount”, US 1869, of unknown origin, presumably from large shoals/schools of the fish.

noun

1. Any of several fish, of the family Carangidae, from the western Atlantic.
2. (chiefly in the plural, informal, Canada, US) A large number or quantity.
   scads of money
   You take temporary employment for office employees and there are a whole scad of people doing that and nothing else. 1966, United States. Congress. Senate. Labor and Public Welfare, Manpower Services Act of 1966 and Employment Service Act of... (page 295)
   Galleries everywhere are awash in these brand-name reductivist canvases, […], mimicking a set of preapproved influences. (It’s also a global presence: I saw scads of it in Berlin a few weeks back, and art fairs are inundated.) June 17, 2014, Jerry Saltz, “Zombies on the Walls: Why Does So Much New Abstraction Look the Same?”, in New York Magazine