Vamoosing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Departing rapidly from a place or situation, often to avoid trouble or escape unnoticed
2. Moving away in a hurry, usually to get away from something undesirable or risky
3. Exiting or fleeing swiftly, typically to avoid confrontation or problems

Etymology: Vamoose is a case of a Spanish phrase turning into American slang. It comes from Spanish "vamos," meaning "we go," or "vámonos," meaning "let's go," both forms of the verb "ir." English speakers picked up the phrase and bent it into a verb meaning to leave in a hurry, most often in the sense of clearing out before trouble arrives. The English word is an alteration of the Spanish, so the sound and spelling were reshaped by English speakers rather than copied exactly. It is a doublet of "namous," a related English form, which means the two words developed from the same source along separate paths. The verb's sense is also a good example of how a phrase can be rebuilt into a single action word. Once speakers treated "vamoose" as something you could do, it could take the endings "-ing" and "-ed" like any other verb, and it came to describe the rush of leaving rather than the invitation to go.

Synonyms: departing, leaving, fleeing

Antonyms: arriving, staying