Peripatetic
adjective /ˌpɛrɪpəˈtɛtɪk/ — Travelling from place to place, especially for work.
Definition
Travelling from place to place, especially while working; itinerant; in philosophy, relating to Aristotle's school of philosophy, derived from his habit of walking while teaching.
Beyond the definition
The peripatetic life is the life in transit — the consultant who lives in hotel rooms, the diplomat who changes cities every three years. There is a freedom in it and a cost — the freedom of perpetual beginnings, the cost of never quite finishing.
Origin & history
From Greek peripatetikos (given to walking about while teaching), from peripatein (to walk about), from peri- (around) + patein (to walk). The Peripatetics were Aristotle's followers, so named because he walked while teaching.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
Her peripatetic career had taken her to four continents by the time she was forty.
He was a peripatetic consultant, working for three days in each city before moving to the next.
The peripatetic life had given her wide knowledge and narrow rootedness.
How to use it
This entry uses an adjective. Follow the examples for the nouns it describes and its position in the sentence.
Choose “Peripatetic” when the meaning fits your context: Travelling from place to place, especially while working; itinerant; in philosophy, relating to Aristotle's school of philosophy, derived from his habit of walking while teaching.
Synonyms
Antonyms
settled, sedentary, stationary
Related words
Peripatetic vs itinerant
Peripatetic describes a lifestyle or movement pattern that is essentially nomadic or wandering. Itinerant specifically links this travel to moving from place to place for the purpose of work.
Word in the Wild
Illustrative story: an imagined scene, not a documented event or interview.
Aristotle taught while walking. The Lyceum in Athens had a covered walkway — a peripatos — and he used it not for exercise but for thinking, moving through problems at the pace of feet on stone.
His students walked with him. The thinking happened in motion.
Some people still work this way — can tell you precisely which solutions came to them on which walks. The body in motion does something to the mind that the body at a desk doesn't. The ancient Greeks knew this. The standing desk crowd has rediscovered it, slightly less elegantly.
Questions about this word
What does "Peripatetic" mean?
Peripatetic is adjective meaning: Travelling from place to place, especially for work.. Travelling from place to place, especially while working; itinerant; in philosophy, relating to Aristotle's school of philosophy, derived from his habit of walking while teaching.
Where does the word "Peripatetic" come from?
From Greek peripatetikos (given to walking about while teaching), from peripatein (to walk about), from peri- (around) + patein (to walk). The Peripatetics were Aristotle's followers, so named because he walked while teaching.