Gadabout

 WORD OF THE DAY

gadabout / noun / GAD-uh-bout

Definition
: a person who goes from place to place in social activity

Examples
"He always thought death was just around the corner. He had no time to waste. As a young man he had been a gadabout, without focus. 'Where some in his situation would have found God, Stephen [Hawking] found physics,' says Mlodinow."
— Marcus Berkmann, The Daily Mail (UK), 24 Sept. 2020

"Here's where [Bill] Murray enters the picture as Laura's father, Felix, a semi-retired art dealer and jet-setting gadabout who returns to town just in time to be the devil on his daughter's shoulder."
— Ty Burr, The Boston Globe, 30 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
If you had to pick the insect most closely related to a gadabout, you might wryly guess the "social butterfly."
But there's another bug that's commonly heard buzzing around discussions of the gadabout: the gadfly. Gadfly is a term used for any of a number of winged pests (such as horseflies) that bite or annoy livestock.
Since gadflies are known for their nasty bite, it's not surprising that they are named after a sharp chisel or pointed bar used by miners to loosen rock and ore called a "gad."
But, although a gadabout's gossip can bite, gadfly doesn't have any clear etymological relation to gadabout, which traces back to the Middle English verb gadden, whose etymology etymologists are still trying to catch.