Half squat

Squatting is a posture where the weight of the body is on the feet (as with standing) but the knees and hips are bent. In contrast, sitting, involves taking the weight of the body, at least in part, on the buttocks against the ground or a horizontal object such as a chair seat. The angle between the legs when squatting can vary from zero to widely splayed out, flexibility permitting. Squatting may be either:

Crouching is usually considered to be synonymous with squatting. It is common to squat with one leg and kneel with the other leg. One or both heels may be up when squatting. Young children often instinctively squat. Among Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Eastern European adults, squatting often takes the place of sitting or standing.

The variations in this section particularly apply to full squatting but can apply to or have elements of partial squatting.

Squatting for both legs can involve:

Heels down squatting for both feet is the most stable arrangement of the three but most Western adults cannot do it.

Where the heel is up for one foot, the thigh for that leg is typically more parallel to the ground than the other leg, additionally the heel up foot is typically planted further back than the heel down foot.

Where the heel is up for both feet, it can be by different degrees thus giving two different thigh angles.

It is common for one leg to be kneeling, while the other leg is:

Genuflection typically requires the heel down version of the squat/kneel combination.

The kneel in the squat/kneel combination is effectively just taking the heel up for one foot variant of both legs squatting a stage further. Similarly, the heel up squat version of the squat/kneel combination is potentially a stage before both legs kneeling.

As a verb - early 15th century. Squatting in the sense of "crouch on the heels" is from the Old French words esquatir and escatir. Squatting in the sense of "compress, press down, lay flat, crush" is from about 1400. Meaning "posture of one who squats" is from 1570s. Act of squatting is from 1580s. Weight-lifting sense is from 1954.

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Wikipedia