One of my favourite films is The Hitcher, and I was wondering how to translate that term into La Internacia Lingvo. ReVo says petveturi, which means "to request-ride", but I think this is a bit inaccurate. For example, if I ask a friend to drive me somewhere, is that not a request-ride? NB, the French version is worse: "auto-stoppeur" (car-stopper).

Having thought about it, I think the optimal word would be "stranger-ride", but my best translation of the word "stranger" is nekonato (fremdulo = foreigner) so the verb "to hitchhike" would become the long nekonatoveturi.

Do you think the pre-existing word is good enough? Should there perhaps be a new verb for hitchhiking (eg hiĉi)? Am I making an unnecessary fuss?

Peveturi is well established as "to hitchhike", just as Patrino is well established as mother and not female-father. But when you think about it logically when you hitchhike your actually requesting a ride? and people don't always hitchhike per car, you can hitch in a bus, or on a bike, even a plane.
And the stranger ride concept fails in the fact that I might "Hitch a ride every morning, to work with a friend"

Evildela:Peveturi is well established as "to hitchhike", just as Patrino is well established as mother and not female-father.

Fair enough.

But when you think about it logically when you hitchhike your actually requesting a ride?

True, but as I said, the term's too broad.

and people don't always hitchhike per car, you can hitch in a bus, or on a bike, even a plane.

Veturi covers all of these anyway, doesn't it?

And the stranger ride concept fails in the fact that I might "Hitch a ride every morning, to work with a friend"

That's not hitchhiking proper, that's just using the term in a different context. Similarly, if someone says "I could murder a kebab", it's got nothing to do with killing people.

True, but as I said, the term's too broad.

Well I don't know what to say, petveturi seems logical enough for me, after all theres worse word combos out there just look at eldoni = to publish now to me I don't see how that combo works, but to native romance language speakers it makes perfect sense. But the fact is its established now and has been for about 100 years so theres no need for me to try an improve on it =)

Veturi covers all of these anyway, doesn't it?

Veturi = to travel / ride, thus petveturi means to request a travel / ride

That's not hitchhiking proper, that's just using the term in a different context. Similarly, if someone says "I could murder a kebab", it's got nothing to do with killing people.

Well maybe my Australian English idea of hitchhike is diferent to that of yours, or perhaps I didn't pick the best example sentence.
I hitchhike in my friends car to work everyday
Mi petveturas en la aŭto de mia amiko al laboro ĉiutage

Now just the verb form petveturi gets 2,960 hits on google which means its in general use. Now hiĉi might seem better to you (as you understand english) but to a native korean or chinese for instance it would mean nothing.

Evildela:Well maybe my Australian English idea of hitchhike is diferent to that of yours, or perhaps I didn't pick the best example sentence.
I hitchhike in my friends car to work everyday
Mi petveturas en la aŭto de mia amiko al laboro ĉiutage

It sounds like your (Oz) usage of the term is more general than mine (Eng). I wonder what the American attitude is.

Now just the verb form petveturi gets 2,960 hits on google which means its in general use. Now hiĉi might seem better to you (as you understand english) but to a native korean or chinese for instance it would mean nothing.

I wouldn't "delete" petveturi, but would welcome a more specific alternative.

I think Asian Esperantists have their work cut out already!

I think petveturi is already in wide use and it's fine, no need to change it.

I would only use it to refer to hitchhiking, not hitching a ride with a friend. I distinguish clearly between "hitch a ride" and "hitchhike" in English. However, petveturi doesn't require that you don't know the person. If you're walking on the side of the road and you stop a car and ask if you can have a ride, and the person in the car is your best friend, you just 'petveturis', and you knew the person.

"Petveturanto" means hitchhiker, it's the well-established word for that meaning, so if you were to change petveturi, you would also create confusion around 'petveturanto'.

If you want to make your mark on Esperanto vocabulary, I suggest finding Esperanto words for things that are hard to describe rather than complaining about a word with an established meaning because you don't like how it was formed. I doubt you would go to French people and tell them to redefine "auto-stop" because you feel it's too broad. when you redefine Esperanto words that are already well established in use, it makes it confusing for everyone. If there's a specific nuance you want to describe - for example if you want to talk about asking a friend for a ride versus hitchhiking - the solution is not to do away with the term petveturi = hitchhike, the solution is to find another way to say it. And evidently Esperanto speakers do have a way to say it.

I would say "mi petis al mia amiko veturigi min" (I asked my friend to drive me).

I think it works fine, currently. And if you get too hair-splitting then things get confusing. Everyone knows that "fiŝkapti" means to go fishing. But if I'm in a shop and there's a huge basin of live fish, and I tell the shopkeeper that I want to buy one of those fish and he catches one, can I call that "fiŝkapti", even though he isn't going fishing? He is catching a fish, right? So I could argue that "fiŝkapti" is too broad for the meaning we've assigned it, but this word is already well-established in meaning. I would probably say that he "kaptas fiŝon" in the basin, but not that he "fiŝkaptas", which is by now a compound word with a fixed meaning. I would say that a fisherman kaptas fiŝon while he fiŝkaptas, but a shopkeeper doesn't fiŝkapti while he kaptas fiŝon. And perhaps it's similar with friends, that you can peti veturon but not petveturi.

Well, if people only use the word petveturi to describe hitchhiking (as I understand the concept) then there isn't a problem.

And I would actually tell the French to replace "auto-stoppeur", but they'd presumably ignore me.

Can I just note to how beautiful the word petveturi is..?

It reminds me of "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" !

erinja:I would only use it to refer to hitchhiking, not hitching a ride with a friend. I distinguish clearly between "hitch a ride" and "hitchhike" in English.

There be a difference?

(I'm guessing "hitch a ride" is more general, where as "hitchhike" describes the situation where one is abandoned on a vast desert roadway and awaits a random saviour driving by in his ute/pickup truck, which is included in the meaning of "hitch a ride" amongst other possible situations?)

Could then "petveturi" mean "hitch a ride" in the general sense, with "hitchhike" being one of those senses?

How's veturpeti compared to petveturi btw? Veturpeti is "ask for a ride/to go somewhere" and petveturi is "to ride because you asked someone", yeah?

(re fiŝkaptado, to me, fish-catching sounds like what fishing would have been called if more primitive human hunter culture did not exist before the modern era, since as a hunter it's easier to just say "I fish" if that's what you do every second of your life than "I am going to catch a fish". At least, that's how the law of brevity sort of works).