A word used by
Hunter S. Thompson. The only definition I've ever found is in his book
Fear and Loathing in America, the second volume of his letters (Bloomsbury, 2000). As Hunter explains in a letter to
John Holdorf, to say Cazart is
synonymous with
Holy shit
is not enough.
Cazart
goes beyond Greider's surface definition of mere shock & surprise; it also implies an almost doom-rooted acceptance of whatever grim situation has suddenly emerged. ...
If Bill had a better grip on semantics, he would have told you it meant: Holy shit! I might have known!
...
In contemporary terms, we might compare it to the first verbal outburst of a long-time cocaine runner who knew he was about to be nailed, eventually, but when it finally happens he instinctively shouts Cazart!
HST claims that his friend
Jim Silberman is going to get the word added to the next
Random House dictionary, but I don't know if that ever happened. I don't know if HST invented the word, it may have its origins in
Brazilian Portuguese. It is one of my
favourite words.
Cazart!