Pirooting around can mean “whirling around,” as well as “prowling” or “nosing around.” This expression is most commonly heard in the American South and Southwest. Piroot is most likely a variant of pirouette and is probably influenced by root, as in root around. Similarly, rootle is a dialectal term that means to “root around” or “poke about.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Pirooting”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi.
Hi, who’s this?
This is Peggy from Katy, Texas.
Well, Peggy, what is going on?
Yeah, what’s up?
Not much.
I’m sitting here actually in a beauty parlor getting my hair done.
In a beauty parlor.
Nice.
What’s the linguistic gossip in the beauty parlor today?
Oh, it’s a secret.
We can’t tell.
Oh.
Sorry, I’ll close my ears.
You can tell, Martha.
Yeah, tell me.
What’s up?
The word I had wanted to ask you guys about, though, I’m from New Orleans originally.
Okay.
And when we were young, my mother used to say to quit piruting through her purse or piruting through a china closet that my grandmother had.
And, you know, I thought that made perfect sense, and we used it all the time.
And then when I got married and had children, I was telling my kids one day to quit piruting through my purse, and my husband stopped and said, what are you telling them?
And I told them, and he said, there’s no such word as piruting.
What does that mean?
It means rifling through things and taking out stuff that doesn’t belong to you.
And he was not from the South, so he said he had never heard of it before.
So when I went back to New Orleans, I asked all my cousins, and they were like, well, of course there’s a word.
Pirooting means being like a pirate.
Sure.
And, Peggy, how are you spelling it?
Well, I spell it P-I-R-O-U-T-E, but I don’t really know.
Maybe it’s P-I-R-O-O-T, like a pig rooting.
Yes.
Like a pig rooting, did you say?
Like a pig rooting in something, you know.
A pig roots for mushrooms or whatever they do.
-huh, -huh.
Would you believe that it’s probably a variation of pirouette?
A pirouette?
Yeah.
Yeah, the original definition of pirouette was to whirl around or to wander aimlessly or gad about, that kind of thing.
And you can see how that would transition over time into sort of snooping around, rooting around.
And it’s also probably influenced by the word root.
Okay.
Like to root around.
What’s that?
In New Orleans, we’re having pirates.
You know, we’re in love with pirates in New Orleans, especially Jean Lafitte.
So we just thought it had to do with what a pirate does.
Oh, that’s funny.
Taking things that he shouldn’t and that things don’t belong to him.
So that’s our connotation of the word.
Yeah, interesting.
No, you’re right.
The people I’ve talked to who use that word are almost all from New Orleans.
But apparently it’s all over the South.
Oh, that’s funny.
Yeah, yeah.
I think Anne Rice used it in one of her novels back in the day.
Oh, that would make sense.
Yeah.
Pirute.
Oh, that’s it.
Pirute.
Pirute.
To look around.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, cool.
Thanks for your call, Peggy.
Well, thank you.
I love the show.
Oh, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Looking forward to listening to you.
All right.
Great.
Take care now.
Happy Piruten.
Thanks.
Talk to you later.
Bye.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
A related word, well, similar in meaning as rudal, which I love.
R-O-O-T-L-E.
Yes.
To grub around, to nose around like an animal after food in the underbrush or something.
Ruddle.
Ruddle around.
Can you ruddle around in the fridge then?
Poke about.
Yeah, poke about in the fridge looking for the leftovers that aren’t expired.
That’s what I do.
I stand in front of the fridge with a spoon and that’s dinner.
