That Weird Word in My Head This Morning

absquatulate, v.

I learned this word a few years ago (wish I'd known it my entire life!), and every now and then, usually when I'm in some kind of twilight state (not quite asleep, not quite awake), here it comes, bringing a smile to my face, a smile that, of course, awakens me fully, and I lie there with stupid thoughts bouncing around in head like pinballs.

Here's the stupid thought I had in the dark of this morning: The Sasquatch absquatulated.

And it would not go away. Every time I sort of started to drift off (we're talking 3:30 a.m.), the vision of an absquatulating Sasquatch sprinted across my consciousness, the smile came, the corners of the smile poking me awake ... again and again and again.

absquatulating Sasquatch

So ... how did I learn absquatulate? I think it was the word-of-the-day on one of my various online providers, and I fell in love with it instantly.

Down below I've pasted the full entry on the word from the Oxford English Dictionary, and here are some things I like:

• It's chiefly an Americanism (We're No. 1!)
• Some of my favorite writers have used it (or versions of it): George Bernard Shaw, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., H. G. Wells.
• Its derivatives (which I didn't know until I just checked the OED just now): absquatulating (as a participial adjective): I set a trap for the absquatulating Sasquatch and absquatulator (noun--the one who absquatulates): I set a trap for that foul absquatulator, the Sasquatch.

Here's what I'm hoping: All this research and writing about this damn word will act as some kind of pneumatic device to force this word back into its home in the recesses of my fading memory, where it will/can emerge only when I want it to--not when I'm trying to sleep.

Because Morpheus, that slippery god of dreams, is kind of skittish--and will absquatulate with my sleep at the first sign of my waking.

absquatulate, v.

Forms:  18 absquotilate, 18 absquotulate, 18 obsquatulate, 18 obsquotlate, 18– ... (Show More)

Frequency (in current use): 

Origin: Perhaps formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: squat v., congratulate v., perambulate v., capitulate v.

Etymology: Perhaps humorously < ab- (compare ab- prefix and perhaps abscond v.) + squat v. (compare squat v. 9a) + -ulate (in e.g. congratulate v., perambulate v., capitulate v., etc.), in imitation of a word of Latin origin. Compare the parallel formation absquatulize v.; given the very close dates of first attestation, it is difficult to establish which word was in fact the earlier formation.

With the forms in ob- compare ob- prefix.

humorous (orig. and chiefly U.S.).

 1. intr. To abscond, make off. Also occasionally trans. with it.

1830   Painesville (Ohio) Telegr. 1/5   Obsquatulate—To mosey, to abscond.

1834   S. Smith A. Jackson 36   By golly, if you absquotulate, you are ded before you can say Jack Robinson.

1840   T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker 3rd Ser. ii. 16   Absquotilate it in style, you old skunk,..and show the gentlemen what you can do.

1861   J. Lamont Seasons with Sea-horses xi. 179   He [sc. an old bull-walrus] heard us, and lazily awaking, raised his head and prepared to absquatulate.

1914   G. B. Shaw Fanny's Last Play iii, in Misalliance 217   Dora. Let me absquatulate [making for the door]. Juggins. If you wish to leave without being seen, you had better step into my pantry and leave afterwards.

1968   J. Carr Papa Là-bas i. iii. 42   Lives in New Orleans, or used to. Behaved rather oddly... Then, without warning, he absquatulated.

1990   K. Vonnegut Hocus Pocus xxxvii. 262   Some overthrown..dictator who had absquatulated to the USA with his starving nation's treasury.

 2. trans. To send away, dismiss; to put to flight. Now rare.

1844   Fraser's Mag. Sept. 323/1   The twenty millions absquatulated from this country for the far less oppressed and still less deserving niggers.

1846   Forest Hill I. xii. 163   I guess I should like to see the other man who made you cry. If I wouldn't just obsquatulate him, I tell you, I'm a Dutchman!

1887   Fargo (Dakota Territory) Argus 10 Jan.   It is rumored that the present grand jury is to be absquatulated—and another called.

1910   H. G. Wells Hist. Mr. Polly v. 117   Ready to absquatulate all the dragons and rescue you.

1965   Chess Rev. 33 243/2   But lets [sic] absquatulate the vulgarians. No, tip Con the high sign; he deserves to know.

Derivatives

abˈsquatulating adj.

1840   J. P. Kennedy Quodlibet xv. 183   We may speedily expect to hear of many more Whigs following the example of our absquatulating Cashier.

1920   Cumberland (Maryland) Evening Times 3 June 9/3   The absquatulating chief of police, an outraged husband and a trifling wife were the principal characters in the tragedy drama.

2009   Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News (Nexis) 27 Sept. a5   Officers later located the absquatulating individual, who said it was just a natural reaction on his part to run away from police officers.

abˈsquatulator  n.

1840   Morning Herald (N.Y.) 16 Mar.   An absquatulator from the State of New Jersey, was arrested by Welsh last week.

1977   Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times 16 Aug. 26/2   The sort of character who owes money and won't pay up these days is known as a deadbeat. But when your greatgranddad was a lad, that kind of citizen was called an absquatulator.

2002   Providence (Rhode Island) Jrnl.-Bull. (Nexis) 14 Apr. g9   Fellow absquatulators include AMICA, Fleet National Bank, the Narragansett Hotel and others who have immigrated to the suburbs.