Semi-squatting

Squatting is a posture where the weight of the body is on the feet (as with standing) but the knees and hips are bent. The angle between the legs when squatting can vary from zero to widely splayed out, flexibility permitting. Squatting may be either:

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. It is common to squat with one leg and kneel with the other leg. involves squatting, kneeling or a combination of the two. One or both heels may be up when squatting. 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 kneel/squat combination.

The kneel in the kneel/squat 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 kneel/squat 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.

Young children squat instinctively as a continuous movement from standing up whenever they want to lower themselves to ground level. One- and two-year-olds can commonly be seen playing in a stable squatting position, with feet wide apart and bottom not quite touching the floor, although at first they need to hold onto something to stand up again.

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Wikipedia