The Word of The Day Is...
Everyone has a word here and there, that they stumble across and they have absolutely no inkling as to what it means. Me? Even more so, because if the book doesn't involve bullets or broads, I'm less likely to pick it up and read it.
So I was halfway through a short story that is staged in 1904 and the author has made it a point to use a vernacular that is dated as can be. Cool, I can understand that, as this sets a tone and language is ever evolving. If you were to ask people just what a "blog" is a decade ago, everyone would come up with every definition but the word's actual meaning.
So there were a couple here and there in the story that were challenging, but I could ascertain their meaning from the surrounding words and the sentence. This one threw me for a loop though, "absquatulated."
I typed it into the cell phone so that I could look it up later. The M-W online didn't have it, can you imagine? Oh, don't make me Google the damn thing (like that takes so long).
Here it is, according to the Freedictionary.com. Don't say that you never learn anything on my blog and no, I'm not encouraging you "to depart, abscond, or to go off and squat elsewhere."
Just don't squat here.
So I was halfway through a short story that is staged in 1904 and the author has made it a point to use a vernacular that is dated as can be. Cool, I can understand that, as this sets a tone and language is ever evolving. If you were to ask people just what a "blog" is a decade ago, everyone would come up with every definition but the word's actual meaning.
So there were a couple here and there in the story that were challenging, but I could ascertain their meaning from the surrounding words and the sentence. This one threw me for a loop though, "absquatulated."
I typed it into the cell phone so that I could look it up later. The M-W online didn't have it, can you imagine? Oh, don't make me Google the damn thing (like that takes so long).
Here it is, according to the Freedictionary.com. Don't say that you never learn anything on my blog and no, I'm not encouraging you "to depart, abscond, or to go off and squat elsewhere."
Just don't squat here.
posted by Writeprocrastinator at 7:13 AM
7 Comments:
To argue, to go off and squat elsewhere or to die? Wow, that's a word that could be used in many situations. If you can remember it.
I hope there's no spelling quiz later because I'm completely lost after the "q".
Becka,
It's such a diverse word that you have to wonder why it didn't catch on, but twenty-three skiddo, did.
Chelene,
That's what I need to do, run a blog spelling bee. I'll type it phonetically and see who comes the closest.
I've never heard of that word. But I guess their is something to be said for authentic verbiage.
Blake
Blake,
One of my sisters-in-law has a degree in English and French literature and ye olde English in her published dissertation made my head spin.
There's about eight more words in the short story that I haven't seen before that I'll talk about at a later date.
oh, I so dig that word. I ain't never heard o' that word neither ;).
can we send the word in bold to the current administration?
Katie-lah,
It's goofy word, ain't it?
"can we send the word in bold to the current administration?"
No, they would either declare war on us, or delete us faster than Karl Rove's email.
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