vicambulist

English

Etymology

From Latin vīcus (“street”) + -ambulist (“walker”). Later popularized by its inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary and thence various "rare word" lists.

Noun

vicambulist (plural vicambulists)

1. (rare) Someone who walks or wanders streets.
   • 1821, “The King of Clubs”, in The Etonian, volume I, number I, →OCLC, page 5:

     "To see and to be seen," is the professed object of these unwearied vicambulists.

   • 2011, T. Byram Karasu, Gotham Chronicles: The Culture of Sociopathy, Lanham, M.D. […]: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 134:

     For example, he would stare at the windows of shops; then, when the sales staff would encourage him to enter, he would discount them with indignation that he was not a browser—he was a vicambulist and also an excavator—literary, that is, and he would wink.

   • 2017, Peter van Buren, Hooper's War, Sedona, A.Z.: Luminis Books, →ISBN, page 28:

     I am Professor Shinichiro Kanazawa, Department of Western Philosophy, Kyoto University. My card. I am here as a vicambulist, someone who pleasantly strolls around cities for recreation, though like you I prefer the vernacular 'to ramble.'

Related terms

• vicambulate

 

References

• “vicambulate, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.