peripatetic

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“
Compared with his on-air persona, Mr. Leno was wildly coiffed, peripatetic, and a bit more off-color in his humor.

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. adjective Walking about or from place to place; traveling on foot.
  2. adjective Of or relating to the philosophy or teaching methods of Aristotle, who conducted discussions while walking about in the Lyceum of ancient Athens.
  3. noun One who walks from place to place; an itinerant.
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Examples (50)

  • It was the answer to the question that had driven her entire peripatetic, rootless life. —  Memory of Fire by Holly Lisle
  • Now Tess had the peripatetic, panicky feeling you have when guarding something special to someone else but of no particular value to you. —  Lippman, Laura - [Tess Monaghan 01] - Baltimore Blues
  • Jimmy Moore's neighboring watering hole was similarly peripatetic, having relocated (with substantially the same vibe and appointments) from its original West 7th home after a fire there rendered the building uninhabitable. —  Home
  • The evening opened with Shafer Mahoney's "Sparkle," a short, peripatetic, percussive teaser of a piece, with no fewer than 14 percussion instruments providing varied rhythmic texture under fluttering, restless lines by woodwinds, strings, lower brass and then full sections. —  wacotrib - Latest News Headlines
  • The occasion, under the ruse of my sister's engagement party, was a last hurrah at the house that's come as close as anything to being a home for our peripatetic family. —  LA Weekly | Complete Issue
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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English peripatetik, from Latin peripatēticus, from Greek peripatētikos, from peripatein, to walk about, or from peripatos, covered walk (where Aristotle allegedly lectured) : peri-, peri- + patein, to walk; see pent- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. =F. péripatétique = Spanish peripatético = Portuguese Italian peripatetico, peripatetic, from Latin Peripateticus, Peripatetic, of the Peripatetic school; as a noun, Peripateticus, a disciple of this school (in Middle Latin also simply a logician); from Greek περιπατητικός, given to walking about, especially while teaching or disputing (said of Aristotle and his followers, οί Περιπατητικοί, the Peripatetics, because Aristotle taught in the walks of the Lyceum at Athens), from περιπατεῑν, walk about (cf. περίπατος, a walking about, a public walk, especially a covered walk, hence discussion, argument), from περί, about, + πατεῑν, walk, from πάτος, a path, walk: see path. The literal sense is later in English
 

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/pɛrɪpəˈtɛtɪk/
by American Heritage
by Steve de Brun

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