adventuresome (2009-10-30)

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: [æd-'ven-chêr-sêm]

Definition: Enjoying adventure, filled with adventure, i.e. willing to make reasonable gambles for excitement.

Usage: Remember that today's word is the least negative of the three adjectives sharing the same root: "I'm not quite adventurous enough for a motorcycle ride with Ivy Hall but I might be adventuresome enough to take her to a Thai restaurant." "Adventuristic" is the only one actually implying recklessness: "We needed an adventuresome CEO willing to expand our product line a bit, not an adventuristic nut out to double our debt by randomly buying other companies."

Suggested Usage: Today's word tells a story of unstable attitudes toward adventure. Some people think it exhilarating; others think it a foolish risk. The adjective adventuresome is used in a purely positive sense. Adventurous is a more neutral term, meaning "looking for risky excitement." The third adjective, adventuristic, however, means "inviting risk recklessly, without consideration of consequences" and is clearly tainted with pejorative connotations.

Etymology: Middle English aventure from the French descendant of Latin adventurus "about to arrive," future participle of advenire "to arrive." The pejorative sense of "risk" was added in the 15th century, about the same time the prefix began to be omitted, producing "venture." The Latin root ven- comes from PIE *gwa-/gwem- "go," the origin of both "go" and "come" in English and a descendant of the same root as Sanskrit jagati "he moves," the origin of our word "juggernaut." The Latin stem underlies "event," "invent," "provenance," "revenue," and many more borrowings in English. (For more PIE, read "How is a Hippo like a Feather?" in our library.)