circumnavigation

Etymology

From circum- + navigation.

Why this word is great

CIRCUMNAVIGATION — [Noun] The act of sailing completely around something, especially the globe. From Latin circum- ("around") + navigation ("sailing"), from navigare ("to sail"). Unlike "navigation" (which charts a course between points) or "voyage" (which suggests a journey with a destination), circumnavigation is the act of returning—of closing the loop. It is the taut line of a horizon finally meeting its own tail, the salt-crusted hull of a ship bearing the scars of every longitude, and the quiet, disorienting triumph of stepping onto the same dock you left years before, knowing the world is round because you have measured it with your own wake.

noun

The act of circumnavigating, or sailing round.“Under our new World may alſo be compriſed thoſe vaſt Southern Coaſts and Streights of Magelan, firſt lighted on by Ferdinandus Magelanus in the year 1520, in his Circumnavigation of the Univerſe ; which forty five years after Sir Francis Drake, and next Sir Thomas Bendiſh, Engliſhmen, made a furhter inſpection into ; and in the Year 1600 Oliver van Noord a Hollander paſt, but of later years a Span”