{"id":14821,"date":"2017-11-22T13:48:18","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T12:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=14821"},"modified":"2017-11-22T13:48:18","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T12:48:18","slug":"funambulists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=14821","title":{"rendered":"Funambulists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I discovered an interesting word the other day <strong>funambulist<\/strong> [fju\u02d0\u02c8n\u00e6mbj\u028al\u026ast], which is someone who funambulates, or performs funambulism on a tightrope or slack rope. Or in other words, a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tightrope_walking\">tightrope walker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/omniglot\/33156969085\/in\/album-72157668977580670\/\" title=\"Slacklining in the park\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2812\/33156969085_e27d926724_c.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" alt=\"Slacklining in the park\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It comes from the Latin <em>f\u016bnambulus<\/em> (tightrope walker), from <em>funis<\/em> (rope) and <em>ambulare<\/em> (walk), either directly, or via the French <em>funambule<\/em> (tightrope walker).<\/p>\n<p>Other words from the same ambulatory root include:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; to amble = an unhurried leisurely walk or stroll; an easy gait<br \/>\n&#8211; to ambulate = to walk<br \/>\n&#8211; ambulant = able to walk; walking, strolling<br \/>\n&#8211; ambulation = walking around<br \/>\n&#8211; ambulator = a walker, one who walks<br \/>\n&#8211; ambulophobia = a morbid fear of walking<br \/>\n&#8211; ambulomancy = a form of divination involving walking, usually in circles<br \/>\n&#8211; noctambulo = a noctambulist; a sleepwalker<br \/>\n&#8211; somnambulism = sleepwalking<br \/>\n&#8211; perambulate = to walk through; to inspect (an area) on foot<br \/>\n&#8211; ambulance<\/p>\n<p>In French a tightrope is <em>une corde raide<\/em>, to walk a tightrope is <em>marcher sur la corde raide<\/em>, and a tightrope walker or funambulist is <em>funambule<\/em>, <em>danseur de corde<\/em>, <em>\u00e9quilibriste<\/em> or <em>fil-de-f\u00e9riste<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Are there interesting words for tightrope walking in any other languages?<\/p>\n<p>Have any of you ever tried tightrope, slack rope of slackline walking?<\/p>\n<p>Sources: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/funambulist\">Wiktionary<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.reverso.net\/english-french\/tightrope\">Reverso Dictionary<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefreedictionary.com\/words-containing-ambulo\">The Free Dictionary<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I discovered an interesting word the other day funambulist [fju\u02d0\u02c8n\u00e6mbj\u028al\u026ast], which is someone who funambulates, or performs funambulism on a tightrope or slack rope. Or in other words, a tightrope walker. It comes from the Latin f\u016bnambulus (tightrope walker), from funis (rope) and ambulare (walk), either directly, or via the French funambule (tightrope walker). Other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,111,10,15,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-language","category-latin","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}