Question

gallivant verb Back in the 14th century, gallant, a noun borrowed from the French galant, denoted a young man of fashion. By the middle of the next century, it was being used more specifically to refer to such a man who was attentive to, and who had a fondness for the company of, women. In the late 1600s, this "ladies' man" sense gave rise to the verb gallant to describe the process a paramour used to win a lady's heart, and "to gallant" became synonymous with "to court." Etymologists think that the spelling of the verb gallant was altered to create gallivant, which originally meant "to act as a gallant" or "to go about usually ostentatiously or indiscreetly with members of the opposite sex." Nowadays, however, gallivant is more likely to describe wandering than romancing. 1 informal : to travel, roam, or move about for pleasure2 dated, informal : to go about usually ostentatiously or indiscreetly with members of the opposite sex

Accepted Answer

December 29, 2019 GAL-uh-vant After graduating from college, Maureen spent a year gallivanting all over before coming back home to find a job."'Star Wars' films have gallivanted all over galaxies far, far away, but the stories have remained Skywalker-adjacent, or at least tangentially connected to the narrative introduced decades ago in the original trilogy." — Jeremy Egner, The New York Times, 19 Nov. 2019

Word	gallivant
Date	December 29, 2019
Type	verb
Syllables	GAL-uh-vant
Etymology	Back in the 14th century, gallant, a noun borrowed from the French galant, denoted a young man of fashion. By the middle of the next century, it was being used more specifically to refer to such a man who was attentive to, and who had a fondness for the company of, women. In the late 1600s, this "ladies' man" sense gave rise to the verb gallant to describe the process a paramour used to win a lady's heart, and "to gallant" became synonymous with "to court." Etymologists think that the spelling of the verb gallant was altered to create gallivant, which originally meant "to act as a gallant" or "to go about usually ostentatiously or indiscreetly with members of the opposite sex." Nowadays, however, gallivant is more likely to describe wandering than romancing.
Examples	After graduating from college, Maureen spent a year gallivanting all over before coming back home to find a job. "'Star Wars' films have gallivanted all over galaxies far, far away, but the stories have remained Skywalker-adjacent, or at least tangentially connected to the narrative introduced decades ago in the original trilogy." — Jeremy Egner, The New York Times, 19 Nov. 2019
Definition	1 informal : to travel, roam, or move about for pleasure 2 dated, informal : to go about usually ostentatiously or indiscreetly with members of the opposite sex

Verb Gallivant Back Century Man Gallant Describe Ostentatiously