Another Word for “Outdoors”?

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Kathy Camby and I’m calling from Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Hey Kathy, welcome to the show. What can we do for you?

Well, I have had a question in my head for years, being a mom and a grandmom. When I would tell little ones, you know, go outside and play. I don’t know, it occurred to me years ago, I thought, why isn’t there a word in the English language that better depicts out of doors besides a word that describes it in relation to a man-made structure. In other words, we tell children to go into the yard or go outside or come inside. I can’t think of another word that is more resonant with the natural world. Obviously, we can say go out to nature, but that’s kind of weird, nonspecific. They can’t go out in the wilderness. You know, I’m at a loss. Can you help me out?

Yeah, that’s a good question. So do you feel like the problem is it’s inverted because it treats the human dwelling as like the base or the standard and not nature as the base and the standard?

That’s right.

Yeah. And the larger world is the more important thing, right? Nature is the fundamental part of what we’re all about, right?

Correct. It seems like it deserves a better word, at least in English language. I don’t know if other languages have that. So outdoors just refers to a structure that we built. And outside is the same thing. We’re just being outside of the structures that we’ve made.

What an interesting question. I’m reminded of years and years and years ago, I was in a band that played a lot of music festivals around the South, and they always made a big deal during these festivals of being on the land. You know, we’re on the land and, you know, be respectful of everything. And I just remember somebody saying, you know what? Even when you go back home, you’re still on the land.

I like that, though. But, yeah, so you are on the land. But put your feet in contact with the land is kind of what you mean, right? To be more intimately involved with nature. I’m reminded of an old computer industry joke about the big blue room or just the big room. People talk about leaving your little area where you work, right, where you spend all day staring at a screen making computer code. And you talk about going outside as going into the big blue room.

The big blue room.

Yeah, or the big room.

That’s cool.

Yeah. But also I’m thinking more seriously about phrases that we borrowed into English from other languages, like al fresco from the Italian, which means in the fresh air, and en plein air from the French, which means in the open air. But those, you know, they’re a little fancy maybe, but you might just use in the fresh air or in the open air. I can remember my mother saying, go get some fresh air, meaning, get out from under my feet, go outside. She didn’t mean, oh, do this for your health. She meant, do this for my health.

Yeah. Totally relate to that. Totally. Oh, you can. That’s a good one. That’s a good one. Fresh air. Or the open air. I think the open air is a way of talking about not shutting out the sky. It’s funny when you read people’s descriptions after they’ve been set free for a while, after being a prisoner or being bedridden from an illness and when they’ve recovered or they’ve been released and they talk about so often the sky. They so often talk about the stars and the clouds and the sun and the tree line and the horizon. So I really do like that expression translated from the French, in the open air, because you are talking about this infinite space above you. That’s part of being out of doors or part of being outside.

Right, and it doesn’t necessarily mean being in the middle of a national park. That could be in your little backyard, but it still is being, you know, under the sky, under the fresh air. That’s very open air. Very good.

Yeah, that’s a good one. I like that a lot. But also a big blue room.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah, big blue room. There you go.

Well, thank you so much.

All right. I’m sure we’ll get a lot of suggestions from listeners, Kathy, and we’ll pass those along when we get them, all right?

I hope so. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Take care.

Thanks, Kathy.

Thank you.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

We know you probably have ideas about this as well. What is the term that you use or phrase that you use to talk about being out in nature, out of doors, that doesn’t have to do with a structure? Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or tell us all about it in email. That address is words@waywordradio.org.