Yes, I know what it means but using it makes you sound conceited. You could have just said, I moved a lot and tried different a lot of different things.

You do sound quite pathetic using this obscure word you pedantic diseased rhinoceros peasant

Clearly they aren't lovers of 70s musical theater.

I used "Peripatetic, poetic and chic" as three words to describe me at a summer theater camp one year and everyone know what it meant.

Anonymous wrote:If you used that word around me I would smack you silly

Lol. A pathetic peripatetic person! Say that 3 times very fast.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Just a job where every promotion required a move to new location.

Imagine how using these very clear words would have gotten your point across so much better.

The person I was writing to knew the details of my moves and the reasons for them at the time they all occurred. So I was just making a shorthand reference to my life at that time. That’s part of the reason I thought it odd that this person gave such a different spin to my feelings about that time.

If you used that word around me I would smack you silly

Anonymous wrote:I would have used the word “itinerant” instead. Or just told them that I moved around like a little tinker.

Nomadic, vagabondic, etc. So many better words that most people would understand. Ok, vagabondic is not a word but it would probably have been understood! And words are meant to convey meaning. Just sayin.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Just a job where every promotion required a move to new location.

Imagine how using these very clear words would have gotten your point across so much better.

Imagine having to use a whole sentence when a single word would do.

This is a “know your audience” word. Fine for some, confusing or off-puttijg for others.

Anonymous wrote: Just a job where every promotion required a move to new location.

Imagine how using these very clear words would have gotten your point across so much better.

Anonymous wrote:Just say traveling nurse. We're still proud of you.

Haha, not traveling nurse. Just a job where every promotion required a move to new location.

One of the PPs. Look, if I were to think about it, I'd realize this is a word less commonly used and probably substitute. Even for a letter to a family member -- and that's what this was, NOT a co-worker (don't know where people came up with that*) -- I'd try to tailor language.

However, that's only if I thought about it. I might not, and that would have nothing to do with what I thought of the receiver. I wouldn't be bragging, or showing off, or stretching myself to find something obscure. It's just a word to me, for the most part. It isn't about you. Just a word that clicked perfectly into that slot.

I don't think some people understand that. If i played basketball, I might shoot a perfect hoop in the driveway, and that wouldn't be about you. If I were making dinner in a shared hostel kitchen, I might splash a fresh squeeze of lemon at the end, and that wouldn't be about trying to show off pretentious culinary skills. (They aren't pretentious. It's just a hit of acid.)

Do I get that emails are about communication and necessarily take into account more than one person? Sure. When I'm on my game, I tailor it better. But if I don't it wouldn't be about you being the main character I'm trying to impress. It would just be a word, although one that could have been better chosen.

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*As from earlier in the thread:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you really have to correct this person’s understanding of your life when you were in your 20s? Can’t you just ignore their mistaken impression and carry on with a different conversation? I don’t understand why this requires a response in a work email.

This wasn’t a work email. This person is an extended family member and I don’t really want this person going around telling other family members how pathetic my young adulthood was. And I care what this person thinks, also, just because I don’t love the idea of a family member having such a false idea about me.

Just say traveling nurse. We're still proud of you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in 9 countries, all capitals around the world, have a graduate degree in history and never once used that word.
The thing that is off-putting is why put such a word in an e-mail? Sounds like you are trying too hard to look educated.

It is not a rare word and there are no great synonyms for it.

Of course it’s an unusual word; don’t be ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:This thread is depressing. In my parents’ generation, people would know these words with a high school education. Now…

I disagree completely. This word was not used commonly enough to be commonly known, even then. You really think high schools in rural America, in inner cities, in small towns, etc were using/teaching this word as part of the basic education? My parents graduated from high school (no college) and would not have been familiar with this word without looking it up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in 9 countries, all capitals around the world, have a graduate degree in history and never once used that word.
The thing that is off-putting is why put such a word in an e-mail? Sounds like you are trying too hard to look educated.

It is not a rare word and there are no great synonyms for it.

DP. Nomadic works perfectly.