Word of the Day

Saturday August 22, 2009

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desultory [DES-uhl-tor-ee]

adjective

1. Jumping from one thing or subject to another, especially without order or rational connection; disconnected; aimless.
2. By the way; out of course; as a digression; not connected with the subject.
3. Occurring in a random or haphazard manner.

• It begins with three young people stumbling into a kind of waking nightmare. Nicole (Kayla Tabish) is a waitress with sun-blasted blond hair, empty eyes and a car whose back seat is the frequent spot for desultory sex.
  Nathan Lee, "Down and Out (and Disaffected) in St. Petersburg", New York Times, Jul 24, 2009
• IT WAS LATE, the wine had been mostly dispatched, and the candles had begun to weep crazily across the patio table. It was end-of-the-party conversation, desultory and rambling, about our favorite places. Favorite place in Florida, my husband mused. That's easy, St. George Island. Everyone but me looked at him blankly.
  Laura Reiley, "Head south for quiet times on Florida's Forgotten Coast St. George Island: a gem along Florida Panhandle's Forgotten Coast", Virginian – Pilot, Jul 5, 2009
• It was earlier than usual when we camped, for the sun was a good hour or two from the horizon, and leaving my friend still asleep on the hot sand, I wandered about in desultory examination of our hotel.
  Algernon Blackwood (1869 - 1951) An English, fiction writer. The Willows (1932)

Origin of the Word

Desultory, approximately 1581, derives from Latin desultorius, adjective form of desultur "hasty, casual, superficial, from desul-, stem of desilire "jump down," from de- "down" + salire "to jump, leap."