hodophile means someone affected by hodophilia; a lover of travelling. It carries an Arena rating of 1413, earned across 9 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, hodophile ranks #4,267 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #5,333 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #7,034 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #7,177 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
Why “hodophile” is a great word
A hodophile is a person whose essential nature is fulfilled by the act of journeying, who finds a deep-seated joy in transit itself. The term, coined from the Ancient Greek ὁδός (hodós, "way, road, journey") and -phile (from φίλος (phílos), "loving, dear"), names a specific passion. Unlike a "tourist," who travels for discrete pleasure to curated sites, or a "wanderer," who implies an aimless drift, the hodophile's affection is for the medium of travel itself—the state of being en route. It is the scent of damp asphalt after a mountain descent, the hypnotic rhythm of telephone poles from a train window, the worn texture of a passport's pages. For the hodophile, the journey is not a means to an end, but the only true home.
Etymology
From hodo- (“travel”) + -phile.
noun
- Someone affected by hodophilia; a lover of travelling.e.g.“I am not speaking of hodophiles, incurable travelers intoxicated by the sense of motion whose circuits are jammed with sensory overload.” — 1991, Travel & Leisure, New York, N.Y.: American Express Publishing Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 240:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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