Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To depart in a hurry; abscond: "Your horse has absquatulated!” ( Robert M. Bird).
- v. To die.
- v. Midwestern & Western U.S. To argue.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To run away; abscond; make off.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive, slang to abscond.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. A jocular word. U. S. To take one's self off; to decamp.
WordNet 3.0
- v. run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along
Etymologies
- Blended jocular mock-Latin word. Probably made up of the following parts: Latin ab- ("away (from)"), (maybe taken from English abscond), English -ate (maybe taken from English perambulate, and the middle portion, "squatul", which might be a derivation of English squattle ("depart"), or squat. (Wiktionary)
- Mock-Latinate formation, purporting to mean "to go off and squat elsewhere”. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The series I write, The Accidental Adventures, is considered good for "reluctant readers," meaning the books are fast reads, heavy on humor, and when I use a big word like absquatulate, I define it right away, usually in relation to passing gas it means to leave in a hurry.”
“Smart enough to be dumb enough, or dumb enough to be smart enough? absquatulate”
Think Progress » Anti-Semitism, U.N.-Bashing Color History of “War on Christmas” Conspiracy
“Sam might have continued writing bright, frivolous pieces for Bret Harte and his bohemian paper indefinitely, had it not become propitious for him to absquatulate again.”
“Certain words used by George St. George are part of the backwoods culture of Davy Crockett, and come from the nineteenth century. absquatulate depart, run away exflunct exhaust, beat thoroughly obflisticated bewildered, confused ramsquaddle demolish ripstavera first-rate person or thing slantindicular in a slanting direction”
“Why, I expect in a year or two to see coffins introduced into the parlors of the Fifth Avenue, and to find them, when their owners fail or absquatulate, advertised for sale at auction, with the rest of the household furniture, at a great sacrifice on the original cost.”
“In the 40s to absquatulate was in good usage, but it has since disappeared.”
Chapter 3. The Period of Growth. 3. The Expanding Vocabulary
“But now," went on the little old gentleman, "we must all absquatulate.”
“Do they think I mean to absquatulate with the spoons?”
“They say Obama's too inexperienced (though Sarah's okey-dokey and would do just fine should McCain absquatulate prematurely at 72) or too exotic or "not like the rest of us.”
“BW, if you think thinkprogress is fishwrap, you don’t have to read any of it. you can criticize the site all you want. you aren’t winning any hearts and minds by doing so, though. absquatulate.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘absquatulate’.
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Rare Words - A
Not just rare words, but thousands of RARE WORDS WITH DEFINITIONS.
If you want to see the definitions, too, go to
http://phrontistery.i...aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abapical, abarticular, abasement, abasia, abask, abatis and 1214 more...
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Silly-sounding words
Serious words that sound silly when you say them
philosophunculist, argy-bargy, Labradoodle, shittah, shittim, floccinaucinihili..., succedaneum, honorificabilitud..., fag-ma-fuff, buffarilla, yazzihamper, mammothrept and 140 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Words in which "u" is pronounced "yu"
cute, uniform, puny, municipal, butte, fume, perfume, puke, cucumber, huge, demure, cube and 95 more...
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phrontistery - a
from phrontistery.info
aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abasia, abask, abb, abba, abbatial, abra and 1214 more...
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for school!
squally, monetization, honorificabilitud..., hornswoggle, collywobbles, slangwhanger, filibuster, cliona, beknow, gallimaufry, sylvan, aide-de-camp and 31 more...
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There's a word for it
catkin, pastiche, badonkadonk, biome, omphaloscopy, pogonophobia, reptation, anathema, xyst, commodify, commoditize, monetize and 69 more...
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Wild Warped Words
MMM's wild warped words. Longer, crisper, and uncut.
perspirational, wordnikwhack, persnicketiness, autosplenectomy, unbrissed, peripatetically, scrumptiousness, diabolically, humuhumunukunukua..., chargoggagoggmanc..., osteosarchaematos..., psychopompous and 12 more...
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Slam Fodder
Those words that will inevitable end up in a Slam Poem
feel free to challenge me!:)bumptious, gamekeeper, slamily, burbuliatorius, cryptomnesia, paradox, pulchritudinous, mimetic, anhedonia, skelf, rampike, furlough and 84 more...
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Love it... gotta use it
doryphore, absquatulate, adscititious, thoil, jocoserious, mulligrubs, hypnopompic, tufthunter, narcissize, sea lawyer, witcraft, euphonious and 4 more...
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Mind your sq's
squall, squacco, squamulose, square, squame, squarrose, squilgee, squelch, squeaky, Squanto, squill, squaterole and 30 more...
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Actual Words
I checked, because I wasn't sure, but these words were coined and entered into a dictionary before I thought them up.
dishevelment, commoditize, feck, foppery, grimoire, apposite, impassible, reparable, arithmomania, patois, absquatulate, scopperil and 18 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 475 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for absquatulate.
hernesheir To flee a sasquatch. Jan 3, 2013
starkulla "Absquatulate" and many more "tall" words are elaborated on in Thomas Pyles’s marvelous book "Words and Ways of American English", New York, NY : Random House, 1952. (Cf. chapter 6, "Some Stylistic Characteristics: Tall Talk, Turgidity, and Taboo".) May 16, 2009
reesetee What are we seeing it for? Oct 3, 2008
artoparts See: abscond. Oct 3, 2008
chained_bear "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 literally means "to squat away from." A more familiar meaning would be "to depart in a hurry."
"A similar coinage is Northern busticate, which joins bust with -icate by analogy with verbs like medicate, and means "to break into pieces." Southern argufy joins argue to a redundant -fy, a suffix meaning "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 linguistic? change is slow."
—More Word Histories and Mysteries: From Aardvark to Zombie, from the editors of American Heritage Dictionaries, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006 Sep 4, 2008
optimusprime Mencken "The American Language" says this word dates back to 1830 amongst settlers in the West. Means "to depart stealthily." Aug 31, 2008
Prolagus Was it Chad? Don't EVER trust him.
(Asativum: I mean Chad, of course.) Jun 23, 2008
yarb I think someone told me this word was made up by Mark Twain. Jun 23, 2008
Prolagus The term "absquatulate" has become familiar to us during the war. "It comes from a or ab, privative, and squat, western for settle. When a squatter removes, he absquatulates." In peculiar circumstances whole companies have absquatulated.
(Forty years of American life, by Thomas Low Nichols) Jun 23, 2008
chained_bear Hee... now it's there, and I'm happy. :) *sighs* Apr 8, 2008
pterodactyl No need to demand, c_b -- I'd be delighted to add to that excellent list. :-) Apr 8, 2008
chained_bear Pterodactyl, I demand that you go list "oh my stars and garters" on my list of Delightful Ejaculations right now. Pretty please! Apr 7, 2008
pterodactyl Oh my stars and garters... how have I lived for so long without knowing this wonderful, wonderful word?!!! Apr 7, 2008
ofravens I love this word. Actual, complete telephone conversation between myself and my nineteen-year-old (younger) sister, who was out for dinner, on Saturday night:
Sister: Hi, um, you know that...what's that word from the other day that means "running away and taking another person with you"?
A: ...Honey. You are NOT calling the house at 12:30 just to ask me the definition of a word.
Sister: Yeah, I totally am. What's the word?
A: pause It's 'absquatulate,' sweetheart.
Sister: cracks up
A: cracks up
Sister: Okay okay okay. Bye! Apr 7, 2008
seanahan This is a great word, it's so fun to say. Dec 3, 2007
rolig Now here's a tongue-twister:
Sasquatch absquatulated squeamishly. Dec 3, 2007
herotuesday This is the funniest word I've heard in a long time... it almost matches booger in it's guffaw-factor. Sep 23, 2007