Traipse

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Dr. Goodword
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Traipse

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue May 26, 2015 8:56 pm

• traipse •

Pronunciation: trayps • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive

Meaning: 1. To extensively travel about without much thought. 2. To gad about, to travel about showily in search of fun and pleasure.

Notes: Where Southerners say gallivant, folks in the northern US tend to use today's Good Word. As the definitions above show, they are almost identical synonyms used in different regions of the US.

In Play: Traipsing, like gallivanting, usually carries a slight pejorative stigma: "Oh, yes, didn't that 'shy' Anne Y. Ohming traipse right over to Phil Ander's house and tell his poor wife that she saw Phil having lunch with Wanda Round at the Dunham Inn." Even the implication that the travel might be flagrant comes with today's word, just as with gallivant: "Can you believe the way Maud Lynn Dresser is traipsing around town in that new diamond necklace her husband bought her for her birthday?"

Word History: Today's Good Word is a corruption of trespass, which we borrowed from Old French trespasser, made up of tres- "over" + passer "to pass". The French suffix tres- "over" came from Latin trans "across, over", which we find in many English words with the sense of "across" or "over", such as transfer, transform, transmit. Pass came from a Late Latin verb, passare, which was based on passus, the past participle of pandere "to stretch out". The same verb also turned up in English, after a French makeover, as pace.
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call_copse
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Re: Traipse

Postby call_copse » Wed May 27, 2015 6:17 am

Another word which I think is used differently here to the definition provided by the good doctor. In the UK this is a near synonym for trudge rather than connoting any whimsy. I'd go for 'walk or move wearily or reluctantly' - the only way I have ever heard traipse used or abused. You might traipse all over town looking for a fashionable item - but there's no gay abandon about it this side of t'pond.
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LukeJavan8
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Re: Traipse

Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed May 27, 2015 11:27 am

We hear traipse and gallivant occasionally here. The word
"trudge', to means slightly different: to move strenuously
toward a goal, whereas the former imply more movement
toward no definite goal, just wandering.
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Re: Traipse

Postby Perry Lassiter » Wed May 27, 2015 1:59 pm

Here in Louisiana, I've heard both traipse and galavant all my life. "She went traipsing around" implies to me a sort of happy prancing, perhaps disdainfully of lesser mortals. Galivant is less pejorative with a sort of western feeling, still in a jocular manner. Neither of these words refers to serious or purposeful movement.
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