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Dec 2, 2008
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Americanisms

This week's words
skedaddle
absquatulate
discombobulate
flummadiddle
hornswoggle
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

absquatulate

PRONUNCIATION:
(ab-SKWOCH-uh-layt)

MEANING:
verb intr.: To leave in a hurry; to flee.

ETYMOLOGY:
A Mock-Latinate formation, from ab- (away) + squat + -ulate (as in congratulate). First cited from the late 1830s.

USAGE:
"If you try to absquatulate again, I'll sic the FBI on you."
Elliott Roosevelt; Murder in the Executive Mansion; St. Martin's Paperbacks; 1996.

See more usage examples of absquatulate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Democracy, to me, is liberty plus economic security. -Maury Maverick, attorney and congressman (1895-1954)

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