Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sport or athletic activity in which the participant seeks to move quickly and fluidly through an area, often an urban locale, by surmounting obstacles such as walls and railings and leaping across open spaces, as in a stairwell or between buildings.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
athletic discipline , in which practitionerstraverse any environment in the mostefficient way possible using their physical abilities, and which commonly involvesrunning ,jumping ,vaulting ,rolling , and other similar physical movements. - verb transitive, intransitive To
freerun ; to use parkour (to move over).
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The name parkour derives from the French word "parcourir," which means to travel, and the basics are this: to navigate an urban landscape by climbing, jumping and running over any obstacle in your path and doing it all with artful fluidity.
Bound for Glory: Parkour Goes From Urban Oddity to Fitness Fad 2009
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I basically look at the game as a parkour simulation with a story wrapped around it, and the aim of parkour is to get from one place to another as fast as possible.
Scattershot On My Way Out SVGL 2008
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Everything Jason Kottke likes about the culture of parkour is what I like about skateboard culture.
hughstimson.org » Blog Archive » Parkour Learned Discipline From the Skate Punks 2007
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First off, apparently parkour is the new chase scene.
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The original film is noteworthy for its depiction of parkour, which is essentially a style of physical activity in which individuals run, jump and scale mainly urban obstacles without the use of wires or CGI.
Parkour Craziness Returns in District B13 Sequel « FirstShowing.net 2008
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They're traceurs, urban athletes who practice an emerging sport called parkour, which combines the grace and athleticism of gymnastics with the daredeviltry of movie stunts and the mental discipline of the martial arts.
Bound for Glory: Parkour Goes From Urban Oddity to Fitness Fad 2009
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"In layman's terms parkour is about efficiency of movement while free running has evolved to include more acrobatics like flips and jumps," says Ez. While there is bickering among some, most traceurs seem indifferent to labels.
Bound for Glory: Parkour Goes From Urban Oddity to Fitness Fad 2009
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Apparently Landscape Architecture Magazine will be covering the urban phenomenon known as parkour in a future issue.
Archive 2008-04-01 2008
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Fifteen years ago, in his hometown of Lisses, just south of Paris, Belle invented a sport called parkour (rough translation: "free running"), in which participants dart up, around and over the obstacles of urban life: walls, staircases, rooftops and anything else between them and where they want to go.
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Before it was formalized and called parkour, it was called skylarking and sailors did it in the rigging or whatever they had.
Bond, James BoooOOAAAGHHH!! Rogers 2006
delcj commented on the word parkour
so i don't forget what it's called
July 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word parkour
I had dreams about parkour as a kid, long before I knew what it was called. I imagined myself leaping across rooftops, bounding over cars, and scaling walls like I weighed five pounds. Then I'd wake up, and frown when I realized the laws of physics were still in effect. Fast-forward to the days of the internet and the first time I watched an urban ninja video. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside -- maybe dreams can come true.
July 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word parkour
So, technically, you could say you invented parkour. ;-)
July 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word parkour
I also invented sky surfing, but that's another story. Next time I have a crazy dream, I should probably do something about it so I don't have so many regrets later on. :-P
July 22, 2007
samoritan commented on the word parkour
There is a video game coming out sometime this year (2008) that will enable parkour moves in a first person perspective. Called "Mirrors Edge", it looks to be very cool.
March 4, 2008
tysoncecka commented on the word parkour
Parkour is about developing the physical and mental ability to get from one place to another quickly and effectively through human locomotion no matter what environment you are in or what is in your way. Practitioners of parkour train hard to overcome any obstacles in their way by running, climbing, crawling, and jumping over, around, or through it.
June 10, 2009