walkabout means A period, often extended, during which an Aboriginal person left a station or settlement to travel on country, typically seasonally or for traditional cultural reasons; a journey by foot taken by an Aboriginal as a temporary withdrawal from white society. It carries an Arena rating of 1573, earned across 23 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, walkabout ranks #951 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,672 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,700 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #3,125 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
Why “walkabout” is a great word
A journey undertaken on foot, for an extended period, as a traditional cultural or spiritual rite of passage for an Australian Aboriginal person, deeply rooted in ancestral practice. Deverbal from the English phrase ‘walk about’; the term originated in Australian Pidgin English in the pastoral era. Unlike a pilgrimage, which is a journey to a single sacred site for veneration, or a hike, a vigorous walk for recreation, a walkabout is a broader, more fluid journey guided by cultural necessity. It is the rhythmic step across sun-baked earth, the silent tracing of Songlines through red dust, and the nights spent reading stories in the constellations—a period where the walker is not traversing country, but being remembered by it.
Etymology
Deverbal from walk about, originally in Australian Pidgin English; the Australian aboriginal word wokabat is derived from this term.
noun
- A period, often extended, during which an Aboriginal person left a station or settlement to travel on country, typically seasonally or for traditional cultural reasons; a journey by foot taken by an Aboriginal as a temporary withdrawal from white society.e.g.“The police picked him up, reared him, and he had been a tracker ever since, except for periodical walk-abouts.” — 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 6:
- A walking trip.
- A public stroll by some celebrity to meet a group of people informally.
- An absence, usually from a regular place with a possibility of a return.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
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