Now dern ya, Jackie, you went an' forced me into this. I've been holding on to a whole set of words that I became acquainted with, and started using regularly, at the 1800's historical village where I've been working as an interpreter, mostly from Marc McCutcheon's A Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800's. Absquatulate is at the top of my list! I love this word, the way it sounds, the way it feels when you say it, the way it looks, I love everything about it...and I'm aimin' to bring it back to life again! Take the "worthless" out of it, as it were (hi, tswum!...wwftd's been kickin' this word around for awhile now, evidently ) The intro paragraph to the word-list is great, but it gives away too many words I want to introduce, so I'll just quote the final sentence: "And, so, dear reader, here be but a microcosm of America's nineteenth-century colloquialisms and slang, some from the upper class, some from the lower, and much from the strata in between.

absquatulate: to take leave, to disappear.
1843: A can of oysters was discovered in our office by a friend, and he absquatulated with it, and left us with our mouth watering.
Missouri Reporter, February 2
1862: Rumor has it that a gay bachelor, who has figured in Chicago for nearly a year, has skeddadled, vamosed, and cleared out.
Rocky Mountain News, Denver, May 10

So let's all start absquatulatin' and bring it back to life again. Now don't you go and absquatulate with this thread, hear?

(The First of a Series)

By the way, I found a copy in the library and cornobbled just ain't there!