Sojourn

[Dr. Goodword]

• sojourn •

Pronunciation: so-jêrn • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, noun

Meaning: 1. (Verb) To reside temporarily. 2. (Noun) A temporary stay or residence, a long visit.

Notes: This word is far too lovely to be teetering on the brink of extinction. It comes with a family of lexical derivations, like sojourner "some who sojourns" and sojournment "the action of sojourning".

In Play: We hear the verb in expressions like: "Lance Sterling always sojourns a week at the shore in the summer." The crucial thing about this word is that the visit or residence is temporary: "After his five-year sojourn in the Far East, he had pretty good control of Mandarin Chinese." Isabella Baumfree, an outspoken and well-spoken feminist and former slave in the 19th century, changed her name to Sojourner Truth.

Word History: English borrowed today's Good Word from Old French sojourner "to stay or dwell for a time". Old French remodeled Vulgar (street) Latin subdiurnare "to spend the day" to create its word. The Vulgar Latin word is composed of sub "under, below" + diurnare "to last long", from Classical Latin diurnus "of a day, by day". Latin created this word from PIE dyeu- "to shine", which also went into the making of Sanskrit deva "god" and diva "day", Greek delos "clear", Latin dies "day" and deus "god", Breton deiz "day", Irish dhia "god", Welsh diw "god" and didd "day", Czech den "day", Polish dzień "day", Russian den' "day", Serbian dan "day", Armenian tiw "day", Albanian ditë "day", Lithuanian dievas "god", Latvian dievs "god", Hindi din "day" and deva "god", Bengali dina "day", Gujarati divasa "day", and Malayalam daivam "god" and divasam "day". (Now let's pay another debt of gratitude to grandmaster of GW suggestions Albert Skiles for yet another beautiful Good Word.)

[David Myer]

My Club has several restaurants and cafes and bars, one of which is called Sojourn. It is quite a fun place but the dining, although
'haute-ish', is pretty casual. It is lunch place mainly and people are certainly not expected to spend all day there. I suppose two hours is certainly sub, under, dies, a day, so perhaps Sojourn is a sensible name for it. It always seemed to me to be a bit silly as a restaurant name unless you want your customers to linger longer.

[Dr. Goodword]

I would love to eat there; I often eat at such a place in Lewisburg.
What king of club are you in, that owns so many eateries and drinkeries?

[David Myer]

It's the RACV Club. Originally a Motoring club but now with superb facilities in the centre of the City. I used it mainly to play competition squash (four courts); it has a huge gym, a 25 metre swimming pool, eight full sized billiard tables, extensive luxurious accommodation (subsidised), a huge library specialising in travel, plus two bars (in which you can eat casually), a pub, a bistro, a fine dining restaurant as well as the Sojourn fun dining facility. As a member (around $700 a year), I have free access to all the sports facilities. It really is extraordinary value. Oh, there is also an out-of-town club with a golf course, luxury accommodation, pool, gym, etc, extensive dining facilities, tennis courts... It is located an hour and a quarter from the centre of the City and is in glorious wine growing country. The whole thing is really a marvelous part of our lives. Let me know when you (or any of your readers) is coming to Melbourne!

[Dr. Goodword]

What it the city?

[Debbymoge]

The City, it be Melbourne, no?

[David Myer]

Sorry for slow reply. Yes indeed. It is Melbourne. Sunny Melbourne, where it is forecast to be 34 Centigrade on Sunday.

[David Myer]

Sorry for slow reply. Yes indeed. It is Melbourne. Sunny Melbourne, where it is forecast to be 34 Centigrade on Sunday.