allocentric

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Concerned with the interests of others more than one's own; community-minded.
  2. Of spatial representations: linked to a reference frame based on the external environment and independent of one's current location in it (for example, giving a direction as "north" as opposed to "right").
  3. Of a tourist: tending to be adventurous and preferring novel and unfamiliar experiences.
noun
  1. A tourist who tends to be adventurous and to prefer novel and unfamiliar experiences.

Pronunciation

/ˌælə(ʊ)ˈsɛntɹɪk/ /ˌæloʊˈsɛntɹɪk/

Word forms

allocentric more allocentric most allocentric allocentrics

Etymology

The adjective is derived from allo- (prefix meaning ‘different; other’) + -centric (suffix meaning ‘having a specified object at the centre, or as the focus of attention’). Sense 3 (‘of a tourist: tending to be adventurous’) was coined by the American travel researcher Stanley C. Plog in a paper presented to the Southern California Chapter of the Travel Research Association on 10 October 1972, which was later published in February 1974. The noun is probably derived from the adjective.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.