diff --git a/nbformat/corpus/words.py b/nbformat/corpus/words.py
index 9916a5a5..6afba05d 100644
--- a/nbformat/corpus/words.py
+++ b/nbformat/corpus/words.py
@@ -1,18 +1,18 @@
+import os
 import random
 
-from pathlib import Path
 from functools import lru_cache
 
 
 @lru_cache(1)
 def acceptable_nouns():
-    with open(Path(__file__).parent / 'nouns.txt', 'r') as nouns_file:
+    with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'nouns.txt'), 'r') as nouns_file:
         return set(word.rstrip() for word in nouns_file.readlines())
 
 
 @lru_cache(1)
 def acceptable_adjectives():
-    with open(Path(__file__).parent / 'adjectives.txt', 'r') as adjectives_file:
+    with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'adjectives.txt'), 'r') as adjectives_file:
         return set(word.rstrip() for word in adjectives_file.readlines())