Time to get the hang of some travel talk

As the pandemic fear recedes and people hit the travel trail, it’s time to learn a few tourism idioms. How many of these do you know?

WORDLY WISE, indian express, express explained, idioms related to travel, what are some phrases related to travel

Tourists brave the cold at the Taj Mahal, Agra, on January 1. (Photo: PTI)

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Quarantine, self-isolation, masking, social distancing, super-spreader and anti-vaxxer are some of the words which crowded our conversation during the pandemic years. We used them not because we felt like using them. They weighed on our minds, restricted us within the four walls of our homes for the better part of the past few years and reflected a collective paranoia. They defined our mood and gave such coinages as permacrisis and goblin mode.

With the New Year in, we will love to put those discomforting thoughts away. While caution is advised, we cannot be held hostage to a fear perpetually. We want a life. And the signs are welcome. People have started succumbing to the pull of the outdoor, travelling, flying, driving, and taking a train to a destination.

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Tourist hotspots in the country are reported to have been brimming with visitors, so much so that local administration in some places had to step in to rein in the footfall. For example, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway has recorded the maximum revenue ever. All these show that exploring, connecting and getting embraced by nature come naturally to human beings.

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So, before you hit the road, it’s time to learn a few tourism idioms. Many such idioms have gone beyond tourism talk and have become part of our day-to-day usage. Here we go off the beaten track and look up ones which are not too common, each with a sentence.

When you get itchy feet, you have a strong desire to travel or do something different: After a long lockdown period, travel enthusiasts have started getting itchy feet.
With a rather strange use of simile, because berries are seldom brown, as brown as a berry is used for someone who has become sun-tanned: Vikas is back from a long beach holiday as brown as a berry. The idiom traces its origin to a line from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales which goes “…His palfrey was as brounce as is a bery”. Chaucer wrote during the later Middle English period and, therefore, the spellings look different. A palfrey is a horse.
If you find Vikas’ experience exciting, you may catch some rays or soak up some sun. Both mean to sunbathe: Want some tan? Go catch some rays on a beach.
Once you visit a new place, you will be inclined to mingle with people, enjoy their cultural activities and cuisines. When you do that you hit the town or you have a night on the town or you go out on the town: Having won the inter-college sports meet, the college team went out on the town to celebrate.
A full plate is when you have a tight tour schedule and can’t afford any free time: On our recent trip to Lonavala, we had a full plate on our sightseeing list, so could not go trekking.
Get a move on means to move more quickly: On our trek back, the tour operator told us we needed to get a move on if we wanted to catch the early morning bus.

Let me throw in a lagniappe here, and an interesting one. The word gadabout traces its origin to Middle English verb ‘gadden’ which means to wander about without any specific purpose. In modern usage, gadabout refers to a person who travels often and to many places for pleasure. In case you imagine to fit the bill, packing light and living out of a suitcase is just the ticket to enjoy the wonderful world.