Bertie’s Vocabulary

Bertie’s Vocabulary

I was in the mood for a Jeeves and Wooster, so I gulped down (as Bertie might say) a tale of these two coves (viz. The Inimitable Jeeves). A large part of what makes these books so amusing is Bertie’s vocabulary (as contrasted with Jeeves’s). I found myself underlining the many words he uses to describe the act of ambulation, i.e., walking (this word is never used). I saw myself as doing literary research not just amusing myself, thus justifying time spent. So, for your perusal and delectation here is a list of the ambulatory words used (I did not record frequency of use); I leave it to readers to research the question of whether other works by PGW manage to come up with any walking words not here listed. I doubt it because the author goes out of his way to provide variety and there are only so many options. Any author of fictional prose knows the problem with describing the act of ambulation (“walk” just won’t cut it).

Barge into, floats in, buzz up, toddle around, whizzed for, butted into, shimmered off, blew in, breezed down, legged it, mooching slowly, popping down, toddled over, hared it, buzz along with, hove in sight, biff down, breeze off snakily, sailed into, curveted[1] into, heaves in sight, trickled in, poured, rolled in, biff off, galloping into, shifting, pushed on.

[1] OED: “curvet—a graceful or energetic leap”.