obambulate

[prettygoodword]

obambulate (oh-BAM-byu-layt) - v., (obs.) to walk about, wander aimlessly; (rare) to walk up to.


The obsolete sense is more commonly found in dictionaries, while the rare one seems to be a reboot that goes back to the Latin roots and interprets them more literally: ob- meaning against or facing, while ambulare is to walk (amble is another descendent).

---L.

Comments

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Seems rather a learned coinage to fill a gap. I have wondered occasionally why modern English doesn't have a walkarout verb (mostly because modern German does: umherlaufen, ± around-here-lope, though laufen is generic walking/going).

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Perambulate?

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should've left out "modern" from prior comment; anyway, only the word-mad use "perambulate" in casual conversation, which hardly disqualifies it from "learned coinage," yes? And it began its English(ish) run as a legal term, IIRC.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Ramble, saunter, stroll -- and in the other direction, promenade.

---L.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

*nods* though it's the ob- that gets me, for the original word, and none of these have something akin. (Pro- in promenade acts differently.)

[med_cat]

This is such a cool word ;) When I first saw your entry, I thought it was a neologism.

How does it differ from "perambulate"?

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

In effect, no real difference. At its root, it's walking at instead of around -- but meanings, like strollers, tend to wander.

[med_cat]

All right :) Interesting, though, that perambulate is around more.