Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to a journey or traveling.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a journey or traveling.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to traveling or a journey.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin viaticus ("relating to a journey"), from via ("road").

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Examples

  • The popularity of "Eothen" is a paradox: it fascinates by violating all the rules which convention assigns to viatic narrative.

    Biographical Study of A W Kinglake Tuckwell, Rev W 1902

  • The popularity of "Eothen" is a paradox: it fascinates by violating all the rules which convention assigns to viatic narrative.

    Biographical Study of A.W. Kinglake William Tuckwell 1874

Comments

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  • We came to know the curious roadside species, Hitchhiking Man, Homo pollex of science, with all its many sub-species and forms: the modest soldier, spic and span, quietly waiting, quietly conscious of khaki’s viatic appeal; the schoolboy wishing to go two blocks; the killer wishing to go two thousand miles; the mysterious, nervous, elderly gent, with brand-new suitcase and clipped mustache; a trio of optimistic Mexicans; the college student displaying the grime of vacational outdoor work as proudly as the name of the famous college arching across the front of his sweatshirt… (Lolita 159)

    January 29, 2008

  • ...a series of viatic plaints such as the more modestly anapestic:

        In a monotone tinkles the yoke-bell,

        And the roadway is dusting a bit...

    - Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor

    June 4, 2008