Brachiate

Brachiate is a verb that means to swing from branches like a monkey.  Our word of the day comes from the Latin word brachium (BRA key oom) meaning ‘arm.’ Since the mid-18th century, its variant, brachiate has been used to describe anyone — or anything — using their arms to swing through branches. I never understood most of the exercises we did in gym class. For example, why did they have us brachiate through the monkey bars? Unless we were training for a spot in the local zoo, it seemed pretty pointless.