Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An overland expedition, especially one for hunting or exploring in eastern Africa.
  • noun A journey or trip.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A caravan.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A trip into any undeveloped area to see, photograph or hunt wild animals in their own environment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an overland journey by hunters (especially in Africa)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Arabic safarīya, safari, journey, from safar, journey; see špr in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Swahili safari, from Arabic سفر (safara, "travel").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word safari.

Examples

  • For some unknown reason, I get a major energy boost and continue on my word safari going nowhere.

    Portia's Exclusive and Confidential Rules on True Friendship Anna Hays 2009

  • For some unknown reason, I get a major energy boost and continue on my word safari going nowhere.

    Portia's Exclusive and Confidential Rules on True Friendship Anna Hays 2009

  • For some unknown reason, I get a major energy boost and continue on my word safari going nowhere.

    Portia's Exclusive and Confidential Rules on True Friendship Anna Hays 2009

  • For some unknown reason, I get a major energy boost and continue on my word safari going nowhere.

    Portia's Exclusive and Confidential Rules on True Friendship Anna Hays 2009

  • He apologised for the delays etc and wished us a happy safari (safari is Swahili for 'journey') and then we were on our way to the bus station.

    TravelPod.com Recent Updates 2009

  • The second is Richard Francis Burton, "the secret agent and explorer who introduced the word 'safari' to the English language," the translator into English of the "Kama Sutra" and "The Arabian Nights," whose "myth as a man rested not just on his carefully objective work but also on his personal appeal as a libertine, experimenter, and worldly figure who not only had knowledge but had lived it."

    Deborah Lutz's "Pleasure Bound," on Victorian sex rebels 2011

  • The second is Richard Francis Burton, "the secret agent and explorer who introduced the word 'safari' to the English language," the translator into English of the "Kama Sutra" and "The Arabian Nights," whose "myth as a man rested not just on his carefully objective work but also on his personal appeal as a libertine, experimenter, and worldly figure who not only had knowledge but had lived it."

    Deborah Lutz's "Pleasure Bound," on Victorian sex rebels 2011

  • "The audience will take what we call a safari, which in Swahili means a journey, to that area."

    daytondailynews.com - News Adam Alonzo 2010

  • "The audience will take what we call a safari, which in Swahili means a journey, to that area."

    daytondailynews.com - News Adam Alonzo 2010

  • By the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, the word safari had begun to evoke in the minds of her subjects engravings of storied hunting grounds along the Cape of Good Hope; watercolors presenting the curious spectacle of a Masai warrior posing stiffly beside an acacia in his regional “costume”; pen-and-ink depictions of jungle lilies previously unknown to European botanists; or drawings of big cats paying surprise visits to men making camp for the night.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.