1

I am searching for a single word noun describing someone who practices free-running, obstacle courses or simply parkour.

Other sources I found simply call them "practitioners of [the said technique]" or are not single-worded. In german there is the word "Parkourläufer" which is a trick as it stitches two nouns together, but "parkourrunner" but this sounds clumsy to me.

It does not have to address parkour specificaly, any technical or slang noun describing someone who does similar activities regarding running and jumping over obstacles a lot will suffice. The less specific about the kind of obstacles or courses (e.g. rooftops, cars..) the better.

Improve this question
1
  • Welcome to ELU. This site strives to provide well researched, intriguing questions. Take the site tour or have a look at the help center to find out more about good questions. For single-word-requests it is customary to provide an example sentence, mainly to indicate what kind of word you are looking for.
    – Helmar
    Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 13:37

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

What about simply free runner ?

http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/freerunning says:

freerunning [uncountable]
the sport of running through city streets and jumping between buildings
—freerunner noun [countable]

Macmillan Dictionaries magazine says:

Free runners recast the city as a playground and challenge other urbanites to look at their home afresh. They race along the skyline - every railing and roof, stairwell and windowsill, bridge, building and even battleship is a stepping stone to higher ground.' (The Guardian, 10th September 2003)

The extreme sport of free running first emerged in the mid-nineties, but finally came into the public eye in the UK in 2003, when the BBC featured a promotional trailer of free runner David Belle racing across London's rooftops to be home in time for a particular TV programme. [...]

Improve this answer
5
  • 1
    The problem I have with free runner is that it consists of two words, and it is easily separable. If I am a free runner, it might mean that I am a traceur or that I am a runner that is free. Thats why I like the german cheat of stitching said words together.
    – Wortex17
    Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 13:51
  • 1
    There seems to be both freerunner and free runner in use. That Longman Dictionary reference used the one combined-word version. I guess you could also write it with a hyphen to avoid confusion (but I haven't seen that variant)
    – k1eran
    Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 13:54
  • 1
    I am having trouble finding other sources or dictionaries using the combined version. Given, plain text searches are diluted by one 2011 movie that used it, but filtering that one out nets me only seperated versions.
    – Wortex17
    Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 13:57
  • 1
    @Wortex17 whatever restrictions you may have (german-like, one word, etc), 'freerunner' or 'free runner' are what are actually used in practice.
    – Mitch
    Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 14:26
  • 1
    @Wortex17 - if you don't mind your writing having a quaint, foreign look to it, you may be able to get the feeling of satisfaction you're looking for by splicing words together with the liberal use of hyphens, for example 'free-runner'. I am suggesting this because I have the feeling you tend to run into similar problems with other words. (In time, I predict you'll get more used to leaving more space and combining short and medium length words in the way that is natural to English. It's a natural process of acclimatization.)
    – aparente001
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 0:05
1

There is actually a word already, it's traceur.

traceur NOUN A person who takes part in the activity of parkour or free running: railings, walls, stairs, benches, bollards, and concrete structures are all there to be conquered, say the traceurs

Improve this answer
2
  • I wasn't aware that traceur is part of the english thesaurus too, thank you. Anyway I will wait for some possible alternatives that originate from / sound more english.
    – Wortex17
    Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 13:42
  • @Wortex17 neither was I until a few minutes ago ;)
    – Helmar
    Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 13:43

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .