patteran means any of several coded signs left along a road or on a non-Roma house by one Rom to another. The most common ones consist of crossed sprigs (usually of different trees or shrubs) indicating, for example, a direction travelled. It carries an Arena rating of 1565, earned across 54 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, patteran ranks #159 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #428 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #486 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,452 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
Why “patteran” is a great word
PATTERAN — [Noun] A subtle, coded sign made from arranged leaves, crossed sprigs, or stones, left by a Rom to convey directional or situational information exclusively to others in their community. From Romani patrin ("leaf"), specifically from an inflected form like Vlax Romani pateryánsa. Unlike a "trailblaze" (a conspicuous, public gouge to guide any traveler) or "graffiti" (an expressive, often illicit marking for all to see), a patteran is a silent, functional lexicon for the initiated. It is a handful of grass knotted just so beside a hedgerow, a twig broken at a precise angle on a lonely track, a few pebbles placed in a deliberate pattern on a riverbank—the ephemeral archive of a journey, written on the landscape itself and meant to be read only by kin.
Etymology
From Romani patrin (“leaf”), perhaps specifically from an inflected form like Vlax Romani pateryánsa.
noun
- Any of several coded signs left along a road or on a non-Roma house by one Rom to another. The most common ones consist of crossed sprigs (usually of different trees or shrubs) indicating, for example, a direction travelled.e.g.“Follow the Romany Patteran / Sheer to the Austral Light, / Where the besom of God is the wild South wind, / Sweeping the sea-floors white.” — 1890, Rudyard Kipling, The Gipsy Trail, Boston: Alfred Bartlett, published 1909, verse 8:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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