/desultory-definition

/desultory/

-) Adjective.

-) Pronunciation and accent: dɛsəltərɪ. 

-) Etymology: from Latin dēsultōrius (of or belonging to a vaulter, desultory), from dēsultor (a leaper), from desilire (to leap down), from de- + salire (to leap).

-) Documented since 1500.

-) 1. -) a. (Of an animated being) skipping from one place to another. -) b. (Of motion) shifting from one direction to another, as if by leaping.

-) Synonyms for “desultory”: devious; wavering, unsteady, erratic.

The first efforts of a child in reasoning, resemble those quick and desultory motions by which he gains the play of his limbs.

The Monthly Magazine… 1797

-) 2. -) a. (Of an intelligent process) performed discontinuously or with omission, as if by skipping from a subject to another, from a page to another, from a word to another, etc. -) b. (Of any process) performed intermittently.

-) Translation: incohérent, in French; incoherente, in Spanish; incoerente, in Italian.

-) Synonyms: intermittent, immethodical, incoherent, unmethodical, random, discursive.

-) Antonyms: incessant, unceasing, ceaseless, continual.

… the attention of the reader […] would be distracted by a tedious and desultory narrative.

E. Gibbon… The History… of the Roman Empire… 1782

… the advantage they gained by such desultory efforts did not deter the Roman general from pursuing his operations with unabated vigour.

D. Macintosh… History of Scotland… 1821

"To dream," he continued, resuming the tone of his desultory conversation, as he held up to the rich light of a censer one of the magnificent vases - "to dream has been the business of my life.

Edgar Poe… 1834

Our conversation during the evening was desultory and various.

J. Stephens… Incidents of travel in Egypt… 1843

I read much, but in a desultory manner.

The Irish Metropolitan Magazine… 1858

… an expression of desultory if not intermittent respectability.

H. Jackson… Glimpses of Three Coasts… 1886

-) 3. (Of a subject, comment, etc.) mentioned as a digression, or as a consequence of having skipped from the main subject.

-) Synonym: digressional.

My sister now and then wrote to me, her expressions were more kind, but the contents of her letters were always on desultory subjects, or of her little Hermine, whom she seemed doatingly fond of.

E. Parsons… The peasant… 1801

We must, however, desist from this desultory comment, and proceed to business.

The Eclectic review… 

-) 4. (Of a person) performing desultorily an intelligent act.

… with biographical and other matter, so as to render that which has hitherto been tolerable to the professor only, interesting to the most desultory reader.

The Edinburgh Review

-) Words derived from “desultory”: desultorily, desultoriness.

-) Words derived from Latin salire, see SALLY, noun.