Peripatetic

The story of the word

Aristotle's school took its name from the περίπατος, the covered walkway at the Lyceum where its members gathered. The familiar story that Aristotle lectured while strolling probably runs backwards: the building came first, and the anecdote grew out of its name. English borrowed the word in the fifteenth century for the philosophers, then let it loose on anyone who works from place to place, so a peripatetic violin teacher now owes her job title to a colonnade in Athens.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English

First recorded

15th century