"Vacate,' v = "vacation," v?

[Wilson Gray]

Though it is a dark and stormy night, Horn's incisive mind has once
again pierced to the heart of the matter. ;-)

-Wilson


On 2/3/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Vacate,' v = "vacation," v?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 1:40 PM -0500 2/3/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >Heard in passing (black male ca.25 years old):
> >
> >"I got laid off, so I though that I would just vacate for a while."
> >
> >It could have been that he was shooting for "vegetate" and missed, but
> >I very much doubt it.
> >
> >-Wilson Gray
> >
> Well, the alternative back-formed verb would have to be "vaca(i)sh",
> as in "transish", and even if you didn't mind saying it, it's hard to
> figure out how to spell, so we might as well go with "vacate", which
> presents no such probs.
>
> Larry
>
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