Favorite Word of the Moment: Absquatulate

[rabid1st]

To decamp, to abscond, to depart in a hurry.

[ Mock-Latinate formation, purporting to mean "to go off and squat elsewhere" .]
In the 19th century, the vibrant energy of American English appeared in the use of Latin affixes to create jocular pseudo-Latin "learned" words.

"We did not steal your horse. He simply absquatulated."

"The Doctor makes a habit of absquatulating when threatened by alien forces."

I love that word.

Rae

Comments

[amybtvsfreak.livejournal.com]

You've had way too much time on your hands....lol

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

It could well be that I do. I have little but time on my hands anymore as I cannot do much else with my hands. Might as well try to improve my vocabulary.

Absquatulation in Pinner, Middlesex

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

When we lived in Britain for a year, across the street and 2 houses down there were some loud, messy, sleazy folks who broke into the home of someone gone on vacation. The house-breakers changed the locks, and some insane law in place at the time said the rightful owners didn't have the right to break back in. True! The law may have changed, but so it was then. Ultimately what happened, I now realize, is that they were forced to "absquatulate" for parts unknown after the milkman refused to leave any more milk and grocery items without the money then, which required the door being opened. With the door opened, the law didn't prevent the owners from entering. Said absquatulation occurred when all of us were walking our 6-year-olds home from the Cannon Lane Infant School one afternoon. Realizing that the loud music and screaming that awoke our families, that the police said they were powerless to stop had come to an end, a large collection of young mothers and their children stood on the sidewalk and cheered and jeered as the squatters were finally ejected, their possessions being thrown out the upstairs windows by the owners and their friends. I no longer lack the proper word for that occurrence. Many thanks!

Re: Absquatulation in Pinner, Middlesex

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

If a squatter had been thrown out an upper window, you could have used on of my all time favorite words: defenestration. Literally, killing someone by throwing them out a window. A word that was once used in an Angel episode and is, coincidentally, also used in the same story as my Rain on Dust quote of a few day ago.

Re: Absquatulation in Pinner, Middlesex

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily killing, just the throwing out part, as in "The Defenestration of Prague," a real political/historical event, and the men weren't killed. Their enemies said they landed in a wagon-load of manure beneath the window; their political cohorts said they were borne up by angels choosing to spare their lives. The German word for "window" is "Fenster," and I think it's something like "fenestra" in French. Politics aside, I'm afraid that the manure explanation seems by far the more plausible, if unpalatable.

Re: Absquatulation in Pinner, Middlesex

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

The Defenestration of Prague was what my story was on about that caused it to be mentioned. And in fact, the defenestration in my story ended in a rubbish heap and so was not fatal.

Rae

Re: Absquatulation in Pinner, Middlesex

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Technically, we could simply leave the people out of it and say that the squatters items were defenestrated.

Re: Absquatulation in Pinner, Middlesex

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Yup!

Re: Absquatulation in Pinner, Middlesex

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Actually, it need not mean killing someone, just throwing someone or something out a window. A kid in my Latin class defenestrated some Latin textbooks before the teacher caught him, but it was the first floor, and they survived the experience. *g*

Re: Absquatulation in Pinner, Middlesex

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Yup. Go 4 remarks up. The Latin books survived? Sad, that! Other than some of Ovid's love poetry, I was happy to bid farewell to Latin. I nearly killed my desire to learn a living language, but fortunately, not quite.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

! I love it! Even better than abscond.

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