NounThe visit with my father was preceded by a sojourn with my sister, Joy—an artistic type and sometime vegan who plays the part of patient vegetarian whenever her unrepentantly carnivorous brother drops in—and her husband, who were kind enough to pick me up at Heathrow. John Haney, Gourmet, January 2003On a recent sojourn in Sicily, I frequently found myself remembering that page in the children's encyclopedia, because it seemed to me that what I was seeing was as close as I will ever come to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Francine Prose, Atlantic, December 2002My mother is Venezuelan, and every year during my childhood we spent a two-month sojourn with her family there. Alexandra Starr, New Republic, 20 May 2002 Our family enjoyed a two-week sojourn in the mountains. spent a relaxing sojourn in her friend's summer home Verb'Am I hideous, Jane?' 'Very, sir: you always were, you know.' 'Humph! The wickedness has not been taken out of you, wherever you have sojourned.' Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847… there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity. Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleep Hollow, 1820 began their retirement by leisurely sojourning with friends and relatives scattered across the country See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
His set was one long meditative, gentle hip-swaying session on relationships and love, punctuated with the occasional short stories setting up original songs — a pleasant sojourn from the rest of the festival, though somewhat lacking in variety. Rory Appleton, The Indianapolis Star, 5 Sep. 2022 Perhaps a sojourn across a calm lake or a cozy spot under a shady tree may do. Ed Silverman, STAT, 7 Aug. 2022 Our group, strangers molded into a temporal ersatz rowing team of six, were on the penultimate day of a weeklong sojourn run by Solitude River Trips on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Lauren Mowery, Forbes, 5 July 2022 Such was Roy Heath’s nearly sixty-year sojourn in the Mother Country. Colin Grant, The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2022 If that’s the plan for this annual summer sojourn, consider adding one of the latest yacht-friendly timepieces to your wrist. Laurie Brookins, Robb Report, 1 Aug. 2022 In June 2019, the duo embarked on a cross-country sojourn of 16 cities, photographing and interviewing 77 more drag artists, the oldest of whom was 90 at the time.New York Times, 20 June 2022 Think Moses, who was rescued from the bulrushes and raised by pharaoh’s daughter, Joseph who saved the populace from a devastating drought, and the Holy Family’s sojourn with baby Jesus.The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 July 2022 The result of that Tennessee sojourn is This Is A Photograph — an album of emotional ephemera set to song, culled from lives lived and lives imagined. Kat Bouza, Rolling Stone, 16 May 2022
Verb
The Red Wings sojourn through the Great White North, this time facing the Oilers. Andrew Hammond, Detroit Free Press, 16 Mar. 2022 Organizer Bob Hannaford said the swingers sojourn in New Orleans was initially scheduled for the summer but was postponed because of the pandemic. Matt Sledge, NOLA.com, 13 Nov. 2020 The safest way to sojourn into the haunted, creepy and macabre, especially during a pandemic, is never to leave home. Kirby Adams, The Courier-Journal, 27 Oct. 2020 For two weeks in August each year, the family would sojourn to the Atlantic Coast for a vacation, first at Ocean City and later at Bethany Beach and elsewhere. Jacob Wallace, Washington Post, 22 May 2020 To the city folk who sojourn there, West Marin is an agrarian idyll. Leilani Marie Labong, SFChronicle.com, 21 May 2020 The author Richard Bach and the puppeteer Jim Henson sojourned to meet Ms. Roberts. Sam Kestenbaum, New York Times, 29 Oct. 2019 After sojourning in season 1-land in the season 8 premiere, Arrow is heading to another familiar location from its past. Chancellor Agard, EW.com, 21 Oct. 2019 Along the rugged coastline of southern Greece, our ancient human relatives may have sojourned in what was once a balmy refuge from the encroaching glaciers of the mid-Pleistocene. Maya Wei-haas, National Geographic, 10 July 2019 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English sojorn, from Anglo-French sujur, sujurn, from sujurner — see sojournentry 2
Verb
Middle English, from Anglo-French sujurner, sejurner, from Vulgar Latin *subdiurnare, from Latin sub under, during + Late Latin diurnum day — more at up, journey