escapade

English

WOTD – 23 March 2012

Etymology

Borrowed from French escapade (“the act of escaping; a trick”), itself borrowed from Old Spanish escapada, from escapar (“to escape”), from Vulgar Latin *excappāre.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ĕs'kə-pād', IPA^(key): /ˈɛskəˌpeɪd/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd

Noun

escapade (plural escapades)

1. A daring or adventurous act; an undertaking which goes against convention.
   • 1724, Charles Johnson, “Of Captain Howel Davis, and His Crew”, in A General History of the Pyrates, […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for, and sold by T. Warner, […], →OCLC, page 202:

     The Manner of living among the Portugueze here is, with the utmost Frugality and Temperance. […] The beſt of them (excepting the Governor now and then) neither pay nor receive any Viſits of Eſcapade or Recreation; […]

   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 9, in The Antiquary - Volume II:

     [Nobody] stood more confounded than Oldbuck at this sudden escapade of his nephew. "Is the devil in him," was his first exclamation, "to go to disturb the brute?"

   • 1918, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 1, in Piccadilly Jim:

     He is always doing something to make himself notorious. There was that breach-of-promise case, and that fight at the political meeting, and his escapades at Monte Carlo.

   • 2011 March 4, Richard Corliss, "The Adjustment Bureau" (film review), Time (retrieved 23 March 2014):

     He seems on the verge of winning the New York Senate election when the New York Post runs a photo of David’s exposed butt in a mooning escapade from his college days.

Related terms

• escape

Translations

daring or adventurous act; undertaking which goes against convention

• Bulgarian: лудория (bg) f (ludorija), приключение (bg) n (priključenie)
• Danish: eskapade c
• Dutch: escapade (nl) f
• Finnish: tempaus (fi)
• French: escapade (fr) f
• German: Eskapade (de) f, Abenteuer (de) n, Streich (de) m
• Greek: περιπέτεια (el) n (peripéteia)
• Italian: scappatella (it) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: eskapade m

  Nynorsk: eskapade m

• Plautdietsch: Rietut m
• Portuguese: escapadela f, escapada f
• Russian: эскапада (ru) f (eskapada)
• Spanish: aventura (es) f, andanza (es) f, correría (es) f, travesura (es) f, escapada (es) f
• Swedish: eskapad (sv) c
• Turkish: kaçamak (tr)

French

Pronunciation

• Audio (CAN)

  (file)

Noun

escapade f (plural escapades)

1. escapade

Further reading

• “escapade”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Verb

escapade

1. second-person plural imperative of escapar