Word of the Week #13

abscond \ab-SKOND\, intransitive verb:
1. To depart secretly; to steal away and hide oneself -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid arrest or prosecution.


"The criminal is not concerned with influencing or affecting public opinion: he simply wants to abscond with his money or accomplish his mercenary task in the quickest and easiest way possible so that he may reap his reward and enjoy the fruits of his labours."
-- Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism

"Pearl, now an orphan (her father having absconded shortly after her conception), has been taken to live with her great-aunt Margaret in the north of England"
-- Zoe Heller, Everything You Know

Abscond comes from Latin abscondere, "to conceal," from ab-, abs-, "away" + condere, "to put, to place."