Atd SPOILER p.343

[David Morris]

This is one of those words that I just let pass w/o looking up, 'til now:

http://www.answers.com/topic/absquatulate

ab·squat·u·late (ăb-skwŏch'ə-lāt')
intr.v. Midwestern & Western U.S., -lat·ed, -lat·ing, -lates.

To depart in a hurry; abscond: "Your horse has absquatulated!" (Robert M. Bird).
To die.
To argue.
[Mock-Latinate formation, purporting to mean "to go off and squat elsewhere".]

REGIONAL NOTE   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, "to squat away
from." Another such coinage is Northern busticate, which joins bust
with –icate by analogy with verbs like medicate. Southern argufy joins
argue to a redundant –fy, "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 change is slow. For example, Appalachian speech is
characterized by the frequent use of words such as recollect,
aggravate, and oblige.

On 12/6/06, Andrew Lack <andrew.lack at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> Don't think it's necessary or artful to use the word "absquatulate" twice in the same novel (at pages 7 and 343). Yet another instance of the rather rushed surface sheen of this otherwise terrific work…