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Peripatetic

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(pronounced per-uh-puh-tet-ik)  adjective and noun

Definition

(as adjective) 1. (cap) of or relating to the philosopher Aristotle, who taught or conducted discussions while walking up and down in the Lyceum. 2. walking or moving about; traveling from place to place; itinerant.

Main Example

• According to reporters in the know, John Kerry looks at his current tenure at the State Department as the last opportunity in his life to play a high-impact public service role, which is why he is leaving no stone unturned in trying to resolve every foreign policy issue that is on America’s front-burner. To everyone’s amazement, Kerry has embraced, simultaneously and full tilt, a host of burning issues, including the most intractable ones such as the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and the civil war in Syria. As he relentlessly travels from one world capital to another, the 70-year-old Kerry has become one of our most peripatetic secretaries of state ever and a hero to this author.

Workplace Examples

• Are you really interested in that new position of vice president for business development? I ask because you once told me about how you wanted to spend more time with your family, and this job may require traveling over 70% of the time. It’ll be one of the more peripatetic assignments within the company.
• Did you know that before cell phones became commonplace, Pete used to take along a couple of his direct reports whenever he had to attend a meeting in Building 3, which is a good 10-12 minute walk, so he could discuss some issue or another with them while he was walking. That’s when I started calling him “Pete the Peripatetic”!

Other Examples

• this author telling someone, humorously: “For the first decade of my training and coaching career, nearly all of my assignments were here in Houston. But, since 2006, I’ve traveled around the country quite a bit, presenting communication seminars for the benefit of corporate, nonprofit, and federal government entities and, of course, speaking at conferences and conventions. So, yeah, my latest incarnation is that of a peripatetic.”
• a peripatetic professor who is constantly pacing the room while he lectures; the peripatetic lifestyle of some consultants because they must spend their weekdays at out-of-town clients’ locations; a peripatetic artist or craftsman who frequently exhibits his works in different places
• famous opera singers whose careers have turned them into peripatetics as they hop from one city to another; a politician who is always on the road and who frequently changes his stand on key issues could be described as “a peripatetic both geographically and ideologically”
• the peripatetic nature of John Paul II’s pontificate--he traveled to more than 110 countries while he was pope

© 2014 V.J. Singal
No part of this may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author.

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