10.22.08
The so-so sojourn
Let’s pause in our verbal travels—let us sojourn—to examine a line from a David Brooks editorial:
They say we are products of our environments, but Obama, the sojourner, seems to go through various situations without being overly touched by them.
Despite their similarity (and common origin), sojourn and journey are not synonymous. A sojourn is a pause in a journey, a temporary stay. A sojourner is a visitor, a temporary lodger. Is Brooks using the word sojourner correctly here? I tend to think so, though I can’t say for certain, as the context could allow either interpretation of the word. Brooks likely means that Obama pauses to visit each situation, though “go through” tends to imply otherwise.
Either way, the word gave me pause and an excuse to linger over another interesting word, so to invite a brief stay by you, my fellow sojourner.
, 
and 
. Feel free to 
Brian said,
October 23, 2008 at 12:57 am
Brooks did this the other day with the word peripatetic, writing that Barack Obama “grew up with an absent father and a peripatetic mother.” Problem is, while peripatetic does mean wandering, it means specifically by foot. Though in the days since I wrote about it I’ve wondered if I was being a bit too pedantic about it, especially since some dictionaries seem to allow for it being used to mean itinerant. But its roots are squarely in walking. Oh well.
Bill Brohaugh said,
October 23, 2008 at 7:22 am
I lean toward allowing a figurative use of the word myself–using a more mundane comparison to “running to the grocery store.” Still, like you, I mourn the apparent loss of awareness that the use is indeed figurative and has a useful literal meaning.