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🚶 Traveling for work 🧳 A traveler 🏛️ Aristotle-related
peripatetic

peripatetic

1 9.3
Moving from place to place, often for work
  • adjective
  • /ˌpɛrəˈpætɪtɪk/
translation icon : itinerante
  • One exhibitor was a peripatetic photographer by the name of William H. DeShong, who moved to Atlanta sometime in 1859.

Examples

  • In some of his novels and nonfiction accounts, Stegner described the peripatetic life of his family around the West and the hardships his mother and siblings endured.

    Academic text (2006)

  • The musicians led uncertain, peripatetic lives, as an afternoon browsing Driggs' archive proves.

  • And for someone who is as peripatetic as I in their creative pursuits, having one of those turned out to be a really useful thing.

  • The coronership was a peripatetic post.

    Academic text (2001)

  • There are a thousand stories that swirl like dark birds about George Ivan Morrison, born in Belfast in 1945 and peripatetic since.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Muriel expects Theodore to remain the peripatetic man she married, and Theodore wants a middle-aged wife to join him in tilling their abundant garden.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Today he leads a peripatetic life, dividing his time equally between two coasts.

  • As a halftime emcee for the Kansas City Chiefs, Scantlin leads a peripatetic life.

Synonyms

on the road
vsperipatetic
476 3.4

Travelling from place to place for work, like a band or sports team

emphasizes movement by walking rather than travel for touring
on the move
vsperipatetic
75 3.9

Often traveling or changing what you do

specifies travel on foot or for work rather than general activity
itinerant
vsperipatetic
8 7.9

Traveling from place to place for work

emphasizes travel on foot rather than only work reasons
migratory
vsperipatetic
1 5.0

People who move to different places to find work at certain times of the year

refers to movement for work or walking not necessarily seasonal
wayfaring
vsperipatetic
1 8.2

Traveling from place to place on foot

includes walking but adds a stronger work or job focus
perambulatory
vsperipatetic
  • Archaic
9.9

Traveling from place to place as part of work or life

focuses more on traveling by foot than on lifestyle reasons

How Mobile

nomadic
22 4.9
peripatetic
1 9.3
mobile
81 2.7
sedentary
16 5.6
stationary
46 2.9

Surface Forms

peripatetic positive
peripateticer comparative
peripateticest superlative

Morphology

peripatetic = peri + patet + ic

Although etymologically related to 'walking around', the components are Greek borrowings not productive English morphemes for most learners, so the modern sense 'traveling from place to place' is not transparently derived for a typical B1 learner.

Etymology

Peripatetic comes from Greek parts peri- 'around' and peripatein 'to walk', so it brings to mind 'walking around'. That is why peripatetic now means 'traveling from place to place', often for work or on foot.