Weekly Word: Perambulate

Perambulate - v. to walk or travel about; stroll. To traverse in order to examine or inspect.

In England, a perambulator is a baby carriage, also called a pram for short. But the novel The Paths of the Perambulator isn’t about a baby carriage; a perambulator can also be “an odometer pushed by a person walking” or “a person who makes a tour of inspection on foot.”

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, perambulate comes from Latin per- “through” and ambulare “to walk”.

Yes, perambulate is a fancy word, but somehow it isn’t as ridiculous as using ambulate instead of walk.