Martha from Tallahassee, Florida, remembers hearing older relatives announce they were going for their constitutional, a term that traces back to Latin constitutio, meaning “character,” “disposition,” “nature,” or “the essence of a thing.” Its English offspring developed two tracks: political, as in the constitution that establishes a government; and physical-medical, as in the constitution that makes up one’s fundamental health and strength. By the early 1800s, constitutional was used as a noun for “health-promoting exercise,” particularly in British universities, where a proper constitutional might involve an eight-mile walk completed in under two hours, with hedges and ditches jumped along the way. An archaic sense of constitutional referred to sexual activity, also considered health-promoting. An 1859 article in the New England Farmer urged Americans to adopt “what John Bull calls his constitutional walk.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “How Are the Constitution Document and the Constitutional Walk Related?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Martha from Tallahassee, Florida.
Oh Martha.
Can never have too many Marthas in my life.
What’s going on, Martha?
That was the right thing to say, Grant.
Hi, Martha.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi Martha.
Oh gee, there’s an echo.
What’s on your mind?
When I was a lot younger, like when I was a child, and even now when I see a really old movie on TV or something, like the people after dinner or after lunch they say, Oh, I’m going for my constitutional and I was like, What?
Constitutional?
Why?
Right.
Are they going down to Liberty Hall to sign a parchment?
What are they doing?
Yeah, really, really.
And it with an A L on the end it sounds like an adjective.
Yeah.
So it’s like this is a walk, you know, a leisurely walk after dinner.
In Germany they take a Spazierngein, you know, they go Spatzierengeyen, which is a leisurely walk after dinner to help digest.
Mm-
And I thought, but why do they call it a constitutional?
That just doesn’t make any sense to me.
It’s pretty straightforward.
There are two senses of the word constitutional, one referring to the legal document and the other going the other one as you said going for a walk for your health and they both go back to the Latin root constitutore which means to set up or to establish or make something what it is, you know, its essence.
So the Latin word constitutio meant character or disposition or nature, and it could also mean an imperial order, you know, an order from the emperor.
And when that word found its way into English, it began to develop two different kinds of meanings around in the 1500s.
And one was political, a constitution, establishes a government, right?
It’s the fundamental laws.
And the other was bodily, it was your constitution as the fundamental makeup of your body and and your inherent strength and your health.
So your constitution was something that was foundational to you in the way that a constitution is foundational to a government.
And then the word constitutional as an adjective also came to mean beneficial to one’s bodily constitution, you know, good for your health.
And then by the early 1800s, you see constitutional being used as a noun probably first in British colleges, talking about a constitutional being exercise that you take for health.
In eighteen fifty-nine there was an article in the United States in the New England Farmer that was urging Americans to, as they put it, adopt what John Bull calls his constitutional walk.
John Bull being Britain, and so that’s where we get the idea that it was probably a British term that came over here.
And do you remember Harry Truman taking constitutionals every morning?
He was really I don’t actually remember that, but I’m sure that he did if you say so.
Yeah, yeah, he was famous for taking these 7 AM walks that reporters had to sort of jog to keep up with because he did that for his health.
He was very proud of that.
So Do ye do people say that much anymore?
I d I don’t hear it.
I think they say it with a wink though, don’t they?
Yeah.
I mean I talked to my dog about going for his daily constitutional.
But I think I got that from a a relative early on who was who was really proud of taking a constitutional There’s there’s two things that I wanna pop in here.
One is that there’s another archaic meaning of a constitutional and that is not walking, but sexual activity, which was also seen in as good for the health.
Yeah.
And then Martha had mentioned that for some reason constitutionals were were very connected to Oxford and Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
And as a matter of fact, if you look at the historical record at Cambridge, people would take vigorous eight mile walks in under two hours and do things like jump hedges and ditches.
And their constitutions were very vigorous.
They weren’t just a lollygagging around a circle.
Those edges are pretty high.
That’s impressive.
There’s a lot of history to this.
Something to ponder on your next constitutional.
Thank you, Martha.
You take care of yourself.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
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