absquatulate

ab·squat·u·late  (b-skwch-lt)

intr.v. ab·squat·u·lat·ed, ab·squat·u·lat·ing, ab·squat·u·lates Midwestern & Western U.S.

1.

a. To depart in a hurry; abscond: "Your horse has absquatulated!" (Robert M. Bird).

b. To die.

2. To argue.

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[Mock-Latinate formation, purporting to mean "to go off and squat elsewhere".]

Regional Note: In the 19th century, the vibrant energy of American English appeared in the use of Latin affixes to create jocular pseudo-Latin "learned" words. There is a precedent for this in the language of Shakespeare, whose plays contain scores of made-up Latinate words. Midwestern and Western U.S. absquatulate has a prefix ab-, "away from," and a suffix -ate, "to act upon in a specified manner," affixed to a nonexistent base form -squatul-, probably suggested by squat. Hence the whimsical absquatulate, "to squat away from." Another such coinage is Northern busticate, which joins bust with -icate by analogy with verbs like medicate. Southern argufy joins argue to a redundant -fy, "to make; cause to become." Today, these creations have an old-fashioned and rustic flavor curiously at odds with their elegance. They are kept alive in regions of the United States where change is slow. For example, Appalachian speech is characterized by the frequent use of words such as recollect, aggravate, and oblige.

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absquatulate [æbˈskwɒtjʊˌleɪt]

vb

(intr) to leave; decamp

[humorous formation as if from Latin]

Thesaurus

Verb

1.

absquatulate - run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along; "The thief made off with our silver"; "the accountant absconded with the cash from the safe" abscond, go off, make off, run off, decamp, bolt levant - run off without paying a debt flee, take flight, fly - run away quickly; "He threw down his gun and fled"