Hi Goldrushers, I thought this would be amusing and informative. I am on the Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day List and often discover a new or better ways to use a word. Nancy Howard > > Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 28 is: > > vamoose \vuh-MOOSE\ (verb) > : to depart quickly > > Example sentence: > "I told the varmints to vamoose, and you can bet they lit > out in a hurry when they saw me coming after them," Buck > declared. > > Did you know? > In the 1820s and '30s, the American Southwest was > rough-and-tumble territory -- the true Wild West. > English-speaking cowboys, Texas Rangers, and gold > prospectors regularly rubbed elbows with Spanish-speaking > vaqueros in the local saloons, and a certain amount of > linguistic mixing it up was inevitable. One Spanish term that > caught on with English speakers was "vamos," which means > "let's go." Cowpokes and dudes alike adopted the word, at first > using a range of spellings and pronunciations that varied > considerably in their proximity to the original Spanish form, > but when the dust settled, the version most American English > speakers were using was "vamoose." > > ---------------- > Brought to you by Merriam-Webster Inc. http://www.m-w.com > ---------------- > > To subscribe to or unsubscribe from the Word of the Day mailing > list from our Web site, go to http://www.m-w.com/service/subinst.htm . > > To subscribe to the list by email, send a blank email to > [email protected] . > > To unsubscribe from the list by email, send a blank email to > [email protected] . > > If you have questions about your subscription, write to > [email protected] . > > (c) 1998 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated > _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com