• desultory •
Pronunciation: de-zêl-to-ri • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Meandering slowly, floating around aimlessly without focus or direction. 2. Random, haphazard, disorganized.
Notes: Today's Good Word is an adjective that galloped off on its own and left its mother behind. It is the adjective derived from desultor "leaping equestrian" (see Word History) but now bears no semantic relationship to that word. It has all the requisite forms of adjectives, an adverb desultorily and a noun, desultoriness.
In Play: When I wrote this, I was watching desultory leaves falling from the sugar maple in my back yard. You might have thought at the time that they were choosing a spot to land, given the fiery carpet they were spreading across the lawn. All that is over now and we have even returned from the desultory holiday season stretching from Christmas and New Year's to focus again on work.
Word History: Latin desultor "leaper" referred to a Roman circus performer who rode several horses at one time, leaping from one to the other. The word was derived from desultus, the past participle of desilire "to leap from" based on de- "from" + salire "jump". The root of this word, salire is related to salacious "lustful, wanton", taken from Latin salax "fond of leaping". I'll let you connect the semantic dots. Something that is salient leaps out at you and when you sally forth, you leap out yourself. Both these words, too, are French descendants of various forms of salire. Finally, we are not so sure here but salmon may have come from a word meaning "leaping fish" that has since been lost. (Let us not be desultory but leap at the chance to thank Lew Jury for suggesting today's suggestive Good Word.)
DESULTORY
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DESULTORY
• The Good Dr. Goodword
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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I would hope the next word in the series would be philippic, but on the off chance that the Good Doctor has forgotten his Simon and Garfunkel, I think I'll make that suggestion.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Lexiterian
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I have been looking for this word because I want a word for "a desultory city walk". You know the kind of walk where you have a afternoon and nothing to do and just leave your front door on a Saturday and head into the the city "to see what you can see."
In German we call this "eine stadt bummel." This is actually one of my favorite ways to explore a city. We once found 2 good restaurants and an amazing graveyard while doing a desultory walk in Paris.
Cheers!
In German we call this "eine stadt bummel." This is actually one of my favorite ways to explore a city. We once found 2 good restaurants and an amazing graveyard while doing a desultory walk in Paris.
Cheers!
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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From Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme:I must have forgotten mine. What is the connection?
A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)
(Lyrics)
Folk rock."And I learned the truth from Lenny Bruce
And all my wealth won't but me health,
And so I smoke a pint of tea a day."
I've lost my harmonica, Albert!
Here's something else to take you back in time. (pun intended)
Stargzer reluctantly comes back to the present and back to work.... They write songs with titles like A Single Desultory Philippic and Sunshine Superman. The recurring themes are loneliness, alienation, and lovers who walk "on frosted fields of juniper and lamplight." Take Shadow Dreamsong:
"It's a crystal ringing way she has about her in the day, But she's a laughing, dappled shadow in my night."
... The Mamas and the Papas are two beards, a beauty and a Big Bertha. After knocking around the fringes of folk music separately for a few lean years, they joined forces in 1965 and made their first single, California Dreamin'. It went straight to the top of the bestseller charts, as did their next release, Monday, Monday.
... Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, both 23, are the most literate of the new troubadours. Their low-key harmonizing has sold nearly 6,000,000 records in the past year. They sing about man's failure, naturally, to communicate:
"You're a stranger now unto me, lost in the dangling conversation, And the superficial sighs, in the borders of our lives."
... The Lovin' Spoonful are four shaggies in their 20s who trade in "goodtime music." The most versatile of the new groups, they mix hard rock and country, funky blues and jug-band music. ... There are no protests in their songs, just new and often bizarre wrinkles on lovin' and livin', as in Summer in the City:
"Hot town, summer in the city; back o' my neck gettin' dirty and gritty. Been down, isn't it a pity; doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city."
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Took the words right outta my mouth- could be a rather interesting thread...I would hope the next word in the series would be philippic, but on the off chance that the Good Doctor has forgotten his Simon and Garfunkel, I think I'll make that suggestion.
Wish I was a Kellogg's cornflake...
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Well, I guess that just goes to show that great minds DO think alike!Took the words right outta my mouth- could be a rather interesting thread...I would hope the next word in the series would be philippic, but on the off chance that the Good Doctor has forgotten his Simon and Garfunkel, I think I'll make that suggestion.
Wish I was a Kellogg's cornflake...
I always check the Goodword Dictionary before suggesting; I guess a search of the Good Word Suggestiosn forum would also be in order.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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