1844 (earlier stampedo, 1839), "A general scamper of animals on the Western prairies, generally caused by a fright" [Bartlett] from Mexican Spanish estampida, from Spanish, "an uproar," from estamper "to stamp, press, pound," from Provençal estampier "to stamp," from the same Germanic root that yielded English stamp, v.. The political sense is first recorded 1846 (in reference to the U.S. Democratic Party convention of 1844). As the name of an annual exhibition of cowboy skills in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, it is attested from 1912.

1823 (intransitive); 1838 (transitive), from stampede, n.. Related: Stampeded; stampeding.