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I found the following sentence in today's New York Times. Apparently, secretive jaunt of New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sounds to carry some speculations. And for a foreign English learner like me, jaunt seems to be a 'less well-worn' word (Is this expression right?). What is the difference of meaning among jaunt, excursion, outing, trip, and journey?

Mayoral Sign-Out Sheet? Secretive Jaunts Spur a Thought: Angered by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's refusal to say where he was during the December blizzard, lawmakers may consider requiring mayors to acknowledge absences.

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A jaunt is

A short trip or excursion, usually for pleasure; an outing.

The meaning is that Bloomberg was off having fun somewhere while the city endured a miserable blizzard.

Oh, and among the rest of the synonyms:

  • trip is the common term that defines some kind of "going out"
  • excursion is simply a trip of some kind
  • outing is a trip that is (usually) taken for pleasure
  • journey is a long trip of some kind; it's defined as any kind of trip, but the implication is that it may be arduous and often discoveries are made along the way
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There's another solecism in that Times article, Yoichi, which is misuse of the word "secretive." It applies essentially to people and not to inanimate objects: the mayor himself may be secretive, for example, but the trips he takes out of town are secret.

[There's another word that you might like for another kind of trip that a politician takes: junket.]

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  • Thanks Fortunate. It’s precious input. It’s difficult for a foreign English learner like me to discern distinction between secretive (essentially applied to people) and secret (that can modify abstract noun). I’ll be mindful in using them.
    – Yoichi Oishi
    Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 23:06
  • A "secret trip" is one you don't tell people about; a "secretive trip" is one that has some aspects of secrecy or mystery about it: for instance, while you may acknowledge the trip, you don't reveal its purpose or who you meet. But it's perfectly grammatical to apply "secretive" to an object, event, process, etc (e.g. Merriam-Webster lists "secretive inner workings").
    – Stuart F
    Commented Apr 29 at 11:32

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