circumnavigate
English
WOTD – 27 January 2009
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin circumnāvigātus, perfect passive participle of circumnāvigō (“sail round something, circumnavigate”), from circum (“about, around”) + nāvigō (“sail, navigate”), from nāvis (“ship”) + agō (“do”). By surface analysis, circum- + navigate.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˌsə.kəmˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˌsɝ.kəmˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
circumnavigate (third-person singular simple present circumnavigates, present participle circumnavigating, simple past and past participle circumnavigated)
- (transitive) To travel completely around somewhere or something, especially by sail.
- 2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet, published 2017, page 50:
- On horses they circumnavigated the fields, comparing the progress of the harvest on the two halves.
- (transitive) To circumvent or bypass.
- Synonym: go around
- 2006 July 9, “Magic month of memories”, in Times of London[1]:
- Rebel of the tournament: Saudi Arabia’s Malek Al Hawsawi, who circumnavigated Fifa’s ban on jewellery by keeping his ring in his mouth.
- (intransitive, sailing) To sail around the world.
- 1992, Richard Henderson, Singlehanded Sailing, →ISBN, page 225:
- Patrick Childress, who solo circumnavigated on a Catalina 27 in 1982, stresses the value of eggs, which will keep at least six weeks if previously unrefrigerated and oiled with vegetable shortening.
- 1997, Diana Jessie, The Cruising Woman's Advisor[2], →ISBN, page 30:
- Jack and Lura Francis, both fairly tall, circumnavigated on a Westsail 32.
- 2004 March 10, Edward Gorman, “Van den Heede rewarded for perseverance”, in Times of London[3]:
- Chay Blyth was the first when he circumnavigated in British Steel in 292 days in 1970 in a voyage that some predicted would end in certain death.
Hypernyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to sail completely around something
|
to circumvent or bypass
|
Italian
Etymology 1
Verb
circumnavigate
- inflection of circumnavigare:
- second-person plural present indicative
- second-person plural imperative
Etymology 2
Participle
circumnavigate f pl
- feminine plural of circumnavigato
Latin
Verb
circumnāvigāte
- second-person plural present active imperative of circumnāvigō