Wanderjahr
Americannoun
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Wanderjahre
plural
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a year or period of travel, especially following one's schooling and before practicing a profession.
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(formerly) a year in which an apprentice traveled and improved his skills before settling down to the practice of his trade.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Wanderjahr
First recorded in 1890–95; German: literally, “wander year”; see origin at wander ( def. ), year ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Laughlin left Harvard after his freshman year, took off for a Wanderjahr in Europe.
From Time Magazine Archive
Potter Rosenthal admires the U. S. The Wanderjahr to which every well-to-do German youth feels entitled, Potter Rosenthal spent on the western plains in 1874 as "ein wirklicher Cowboy."
From Time Magazine Archive
During his involuntary Wanderjahr Wissenback crossed frontiers half a dozen times, rode next to German officers in trains.
From Time Magazine Archive
On a Wanderjahr around the world in 1908, Bayard stopped off at the American University of Beirut, in the Lebanon.
From Time Magazine Archive
I am reading the "Wanderjahr," having finished the "Lehrjahr."
From Records of Later Life by Fanny Kemble
Many early pages chronicle the poet’s youthful Wanderjahre in Europe, but almost nothing is said about his 25 years as a Harvard professor of European languages and literatures.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 2, 2020
In Germany, the still extant Wanderjahre tradition sees young people wander the country for a fixed period, dressed in stovepipe hats and bell-bottoms, singing for their sausage suppers in inns and bars.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 9, 2017
Many students will therefore treat themselves to Wanderjahre, living frugaily on handouts from home or picking up odd jobs.
From Time Magazine Archive
The circus held him for only half a year; then his Wanderjahre began for fair.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was a period of his life corresponding to the Wanderjahre of the German artisan, and was an easy way of gratifying a taste for travel without the risk of privation.
From Edison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer
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