|
WordWealth: peripatetic
per·i·pa·tet·ic
 ,
adj.
1. walking or
traveling about; itinerant. 2. (cap.) of or pertaining
to Aristotle, who taught philosophy while walking in the Lyceum of
ancient Athens. 3. (cap.) of or pertaining to the
Aristotelian school of philosophy.
–n.
4. a person who
walks or travels about. 5. (cap.) a member of the
Aristotelian school.
[1400–50; late ME < L
peripat ēticus
< Gk peripatētikós
of Aristotle and his school, lit., walking about, equiv. to
peripatē-
(verbid s. of peripateîn to walk about, equiv. to peri-
PERI-
+ pateîn to walk; akin to
PATH) +
-tikos -TIC]
—per i·pa·tet i·cal·ly,
adv.
—per·i·pa·tet·i·cism
 ,
n.
—Syn. 1.
wandering, roving; vagrant. (Random
House Webster's Unabridged).
Look at
Thesaurus
Mark Doty's new memoir,
Firebird, is both a gay coming-of-age story and a portrait of the artist as a young man. Doty's boyhood was
peripatetic and lonely; his family, like erratic tourists,
crisscrossed the country -- from Memphis to Nashville to Tucson,
Titusville, to Maryville, to Lancaster, and back to Tucson -- moving
from one suburban neighborhood to the next. A self-described "chubby
smart bookish sissy with glasses and a Southern accent newly arrived
from unimaginable places," Doty was both stranger and misfit. Even his
boyhood enthusiasms -- tap-dancing; secretly rummaging through and
delighting in his sister's cotillion souvenirs; dressing up in black
stockings and singing like Judy Garland -- were rarely sources of
solace; they were more often a confusing jumble of pride and shame. —— 'Interview
with Mark Doty'; The Atlantic, Nov 10, 1999
England, especially the counties of the Midlands through which many of
the plotters naturally fled was in an uproar, and dozens of suspects
were arrested. Within a very few days Catesby and his cluster of
disillusioned plotters had been besieged at Holbeach House in
Staffordshire, and killed fighting. 'This left only a handful of men
for trial and execution with the pitifully reduced Fawkes. The
priest-hunt continued, and among those captured with Father Oldcorne
was the man who had done so much with his building and carpentry to
secure their clandestine presence in recusant country houses like
Sawston Hall in Essex - Nicholas Owen. He had a remarkable
peripatetic career making priest holes in many houses. A
laybrother, carpenter and mason, he was known as ’Little John’. ——
Alan Haynes, 'History;
Gunpowder Plot'; Vicious reaction; BCC
Nineties management-speak has coined a series of words to describe
this situation. In addition to portfolio career, coined by
Professor Charles Handy, and now a well established term, we have
portfolio employment, portfolio worker and even
portfolio nomad, which conjures up an image of peripatetic
workers traipsing from workplace to workplace, carrying their portable
employable skills with them. ——
Michael Quinion, 'Topical
Word, Portfolio'; Michael writes about International
English from a British viewpoint
Look at
Thesaurus in depth
Back index, 'P'
Back index, 'O'
|
Next index, 'Q'
>
WordWealth, HOME |
 |
|
