(Image from travel-challenges.com)

A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg

Everyone likes going places. One might call it a vacation, another a holiday, and some just call it escaping the inbox. But what if your travel plans were dictated by the _literal_ meaning of the word? Here’s what your itinerary would look like, etymologically speaking:

• journey: A day trip (from French jour: day). About 20 miles max in those days
• travel: Torture (Latin trepaliare: to torture). Because travel in those days wasn’t exactly a trip to Disneyland
• holiday: Perhaps a pilgrimage, because holiday is, literally, holy day. Well, you could worship the sun
• pilgrimage: A foreign trip (Latin peregrinus: foreign)
• visit: Go see a place (Latin videre: to see). So if you attend a concert, would that be an audit? (Latin audire: to hear)
• trip: Dancing in the backyard (Old French triper: to hop, skip, leap, dance)
• vacation: Vacate the home? Also, the wallet? (Latin vacare: to be empty)
• tour: Spinning in circles? (Greek tornos: lathe)

Good thing etymology isn’t destiny. A word is not limited to its roots or what it meant originally.

This week we’re taking you on a, well, let’s call it a jaunt (origin unknown). We’ll explore places, far and wide, that have become metaphors in the English language. Such words are also called toponyms, from Greek topo- (place) + -nym (name).

What are your favorite places to visit, whether down the road or across the globe? Do you have a location that you return to again and again? Why? Tell us via our website or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Include your home base (city, state).

And wherever you go, may your journey be less “trepaliare” and more “trip”!