Welcome word nerds! Have I really made you wait three whole weeks to find out the meaning of absquatulate? I think I have. How abominable of me! Just because I’ve been having fun away down in the south of mainland Australia…
Let me remedy that now.
absquatulate
1. decamp • a frontiesman preparing to absquatulate and head for the wilderness;
2. abscond • the cashier absquatulated with the funds
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/absquatulate
Interestingly, both entries are marked as ‘slang’. People were obviously much fancier with their slang back then! Congratulations to the commenters who knew the right definition.
Now, onto today’s word. If I said to you, “I’ll see you in a fortnight”, how many of you would know how long that is? I’ve been led to believe it’s not in common use in the US, but maybe that’s not the case.
It comes from the Middle English fourteniht and literally means fourteen nights; in other words, two weeks. We use it frequently here in Australia, but maybe you don’t use it where you come from. Inquiring minds want to know!
Fiction Aficionado 
Good morning. I’ve never used the word fortnight, however, it seems to be used in literature fairly frequently. 🙂
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True, especially if you read British literature. 🙂
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I use it ALL the time–in my medieval romances. And sennight (seven nights). Both beautiful words that add just the right amount of medieval flavor. Unfortunately, if I used it in everyday conversation here in Tennessee, there would be a lot of head scratching going on 🙂
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Of course! And I love the way you capture the flavour of ‘medieval’ English in a way that’s still easy to understand. ❤️
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I know what it means, but I never use it in my daily conversation. Two weeks is a lot easier to figure out than a fortnight, for some reason. I don’t hear it used in my part of the US.
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I’m actually going to have to pay attention and see how often I use it or hear it used. I think it’s probably being used less frequently here these days.
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I’m still practicing saying it without adding extra syllables. Thanks for all your fun posts.
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Haha! Yes, that’s a challenge, isn’t it? Glad you’re enjoying the posts. 🙂
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