absquatulate

Meaning

Verb

• To leave quickly or in a hurry; to depart, flee.
• to abscond.

Related

Similar words

• abscond, decamp, skedaddle, vamoose

Origin

• Attested since the 1830s in American English, a jocular mock-Latin word. , as ab- (as in abscond) + squat + *-ulate (as in perambulate, properly -ate), hence meaning “get up (from a squat) and depart (quickly)”. The middle portion was perhaps influenced by -le and the dialectal term squattle; compare contemporary skedaddle.