rote

Pronounced: rote, noun

Notes: I know only one of the definitions – how many do you know?

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Yesterday’s word

The word peregrination is “an excursion especially on foot or to a foreign county; journey”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1400s

Background / Comments

Our word goes back to the Latin word peregrinus (foreign; foreigner). We get the word pilgrim from the same Latin word: it originally meant “alien” — today, it means “tending to wander”. The Latin word is also the source of “peregrine”, a type of falcon: legend has it that it is captured during its first flight (pilgrimage) from the nest. Getting back to our word, the idea of “foreign” has more or less faded away so that it can mean any kind of long, wandering journey.