Travelin'

Greetings, as we embark upon another year in the journey of our lives. Life as a journey is a trite metaphor—except for the Grateful Dead’s “long, strange trip” of “Truckin’”--but when I last blogged, I had been traveling and have traveled since, both literally and metaphorically; therefore, words describing travel have been on my mind for a while.

Modes of travel have evolved over the millennia. When new technologies come into existence, words to describe them have to come from somewhere.  These words can be borrowed from existing technology or simply made up.  Sea travel evolved as the first great innovation in long distance travel. When train travel and air travel followed, many of the terms associated with sea travel transferred to train and air travel.

For example, boats in early years were known as “barks.” The American Heritage Dictionary defines “bark” as a sailing ship or “a small vessel propelled by oars or sails.”  The origin of this word goes back to the Greek referring to a flat-bottomed boat. When we put the prefix “em-,” as in “put into” or “surround with” in front of “bark,” we get the word meaning “to go aboard a vessel or aircraft, as at the start of a journey.” (I will also put forward a meaning of “embark” as what happens when our neighbor’s dogs bark—we are “embarked,” or surrounded by barking.)

In today’s world when we set out upon an odyssey, why do we not “emplane,” “embus,” or “emcar” ourselves, as in Richard and I “emcarred” in November and headed South? (In a recent reading of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, I did notice a usage when Adam as a soldier “entrains” to go somewhere for the military.) Instead, we board a boat, a plane, a train, and a bus, but not a car.  We simply get in a car and go. Why do we not board a car, as well?

Once we reach our destination, we deplane when we get off of a plane and detrain when we get off of a train. (Also, we “detrain” in more ways than one when we fail to keep New Year’s resolutions regarding diet and exercise.) However, we do not debus, deboat, or decar. We get off of the bus and the boat and out of the car. (I cannot help but allude to Tattoo on “Fantasy Island,” exclaiming, “De plane! De plane!”)

As you of friendkind embark on the journey of 2014, may your flight avoid turbulence, may you not miss your bus or your boat, may you have smooth sailing, may your train not derail, and may your trip move smoothly through any construction zones you encounter. Finally, for those of you who are inclined to embrace the metaphor, I wish you that “long, strange trip” about which the Grateful Dead sing in “Truckin’.”

LAGNIAPPE:  Going back to the Greek flat-bottomed boats, think of Homer and his archetype of the literal and metaphorical journey with The Odyssey. The war hero Odysseus’s ten-year delay in getting home after the Trojan War makes recent travel delays and cancellations due to inclement weather seem like a walk in the park.