absquatulate is a jocular 19th-century American coinage, mock-Latin in form, blending ab- ('away'), squat, and a Latinate verb ending like -ate, as if 'to depart from one's squat'. The formation turns on ab-, a prefixal element preserved in the word's surface shape and tied to the older base described in its history. In modern use, the verb sense is "to leave abruptly or abscond; to make off", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as squat and derivatives such as absquatulation, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary.