circumnavigate
/ˌsə.kəmˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/
circumnavigate means to travel completely around somewhere or something, especially by sail. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
circumnavigate is pronounced /ˌsə.kəmˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/.
Why “circumnavigate” is a great word
CIRCUMNAVIGATE — [Verb] To travel completely around something, especially by sea or air, or to bypass an obstacle. From the Latin circumnāvigāre, from circum ("around") + nāvigāre ("to sail, navigate"), itself from nāvis ("ship") + agere ("to drive, do"). First attested in English in the 1630s. Unlike "navigate" (which is to chart a course through) or "circumvent" (which is to sidestep with cunning), "circumnavigate" is the literal, exhaustive act of enclosure. It is the salt-cracked hands gripping a wheel for years to return to the same harbor from the opposite heading; it is the shadow of a jetliner tracing a perfect, pressurized arc over polar ice and equatorial heat; it is the mind, late at night, pacing the unyielding perimeter of a single, intractable thought—a journey measured not by distance covered, but by the full, weary comprehension of a boundary.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin circumnāvigātus, perfect passive participle of circumnāvigō (“sail round something, circumnavigate”), from circum (“about, around”) + nāvigō (“sail, navigate”), from nāvis (“ship”) + agō (“do”). By surface analysis, circum- + navigate.
verb
- To travel completely around somewhere or something, especially by sail.“We circumnavigated the Mediterranean.”
- To circumvent or bypass.“Rebel of the tournament: Saudi Arabia’s Malek Al Hawsawi, who circumnavigated Fifa’s ban on jewellery by keeping his ring in his mouth.”
- To sail around the world.“Patrick Childress, who solo circumnavigated on a Catalina 27 in 1982, stresses the value of eggs, which will keep at least six weeks if previously unrefrigerated and oiled with vegetable shortening.”