adventurer

English

Wikipedia

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Etymology

Compare French aventurier; adventure +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (US): IPA: /ædˈvɛn.tʃɚ.ɚ/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

adventurer (plural adventurers)

1. One who adventures; as, the merchant adventurers; one who seeks his fortune in new and hazardous or perilous enterprises.
   • 2013 January 1, Nancy Langston, “The Fraught History of a Watery World”, American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, page 59: 

     European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.

2. A soldier of fortune, a speculator.
3. A social pretender on the lookout for advancement; one who pushes his fortune by equivocal means, as false pretences.
4. (video games) A player of adventure games or text adventures.
   • 1983, PC Mag (volume 2, number 2, July 1983, page 351)

     Meanwhile, the ranks of adventurers grow, be they manic puzzle-solvers or people like me, who like to look under the Robners' beds just for the hell of it.

Related terms

• adventuress

Translations

one who adventures; as, the merchant adventurers

• Azeri: avantürist (az), macəraçı (az)
• Basque: abenturazale (eu)
• Bulgarian: авантюрист (bg) (avantjurist)
• Catalan: aventurer (ca) m
• Czech: dobrodruh (cs) m
• Dutch: avonturier (nl) m
• German: Abenteurer (de) m, Abenteurerin (de) f

• Greek: τυχοδιώκτης (el) (tychodióktis) m
• Hungarian: kalandor (hu)
• Indonesian: petualang (id)
• Spanish: aventurero (es) m, aventurera (es) f
• Turkish: maceraperest (tr), maceracı (tr)
• Volapük: (male or female) ventüran (vo), (male) hiventüran (vo), (female) jiventüran (vo)

social pretender on the lookout for advancement

• German: Thronbewerber (de) m
• Greek: τυχοδιώκτης (el) (tychodióktis) m

• Hungarian: kalandor (hu)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Albanian: aventurier
• French: aventurier m
• Hebrew: הרפתקן (harpatqan) m, הרפתקנית (harpatqanyt) f

External links

• adventurer in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• adventurer in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911