Saunters

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Moves at a leisurely, unhurried pace as if carefree and confident
2. Takes a slow, easy walk without rush or concern about reaching a destination
3. Advances with a casual and relaxed gait that suggests enjoyment or lack of urgency

Etymology: The most striking thing about "saunters" is how little anyone can prove about where "saunter" came from. Its earliest sense was "to muse," recorded in the late 15th century, and it only reached the sense of strolling in the 1660s. Dictionaries offer several candidates, none of them certain. One links it to Old French "sentier," meaning "path," so that a saunterer was someone who wandered along a footpath. Another proposes Anglo-Norman "sauntrer," from Middle French "s'aventurer," "to take risks," though the Oxford English Dictionary considers that unlikely. A third connects it to a family of Germanic words for strolling, such as German "schlendern" and Swedish "släntra." Henry David Thoreau, in his essay "Walking," offered two fanciful derivations. He suggested it came from "Sainte Terre," meaning "holy land," since medieval pilgrims to the Holy Land were supposedly called saunterers. He also proposed "sans terre," "without land," for a wanderer with no home. Scholars dismiss both as far-fetched.

Synonyms: strolls, ambles, wanders, meanders, moseys

Antonyms: rushes, sprints, runs, hurries, dashes