itinerant
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What does “itinerant” mean and how is it defined?
It's the word of the day for july twenty fourth. Today's word is itinerant, spelled I T I N E-R-A-N-T. Itinerant is an adjective.
How does the itinerant blues singer stereotype differ from female performers like Ma Rainey?
It describes someone who travels from place to place or only stays in a place for a short amount of time. It's used especially for people who travel in a circuit for their profession. Here's the word used in a sentence from the BBC by Deborah Nichols-Lee. There has long been this masculine idea that a lone, itinerant male blues singer, travelling the south with a guitar slung over his back was the authentic representation of the blues, doctor Cookie Woolner explains, while female performers like Ma Rainey, who drew from Vaudeville and Blackface Minstrels, were commercial entertainers and not artists.
Which popular songs illustrate the highs and lows of an itinerant touring lifestyle?
Many a song in popular music has been penned about the itinerant lifestyle of touring, ranging from the exuberant, like travel and band by Credence Clearwater Revival, to the exhausted, like Lodi by Credence Clearwater Revival. All journeys have their highs and lows, of course, and the word itinerant is all about the journey, not the destination. Indeed, itinerant comes from the late Latin verb itinerari, meaning to journey, which in turn traipsed down the etymological trail from the noun eter meaning way or journey. Itinerant is usually encountered as an adjective used to describe traveling types, especially those like touring musicians, whose itineraries to use another eter descendant, are often circuits, but can also be used as a noun.
How did the word “itinerant” evolve from Latin and how is it used as both adjective and noun?
Itinerants, musical or otherwise, are those who never stay in one place for long, who, whether by choice, profession, or circumstance, keep on chugglin'. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. Visit MarionWebster dot com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What does “itinerant” mean and how is it defined?
0:06–0:20
2
How does the itinerant blues singer stereotype differ from female performers like Ma Rainey?
0:20–1:02
3
Which popular songs illustrate the highs and lows of an itinerant touring lifestyle?
1:02–1:53
4
How did the word “itinerant” evolve from Latin and how is it used as both adjective and noun?
1:53–2:15