A WORD A DAY.

Southland Times, Issue 21274, 20 December 1930, Page 8

A WORD A DAY.

DESULTORY. iliis word presents such a vivid picture in its makeup that it should never be hard to remember. The Latins gave the name desuitor to "one who leaps down” or “one who leaps from horse to horse.” It was from de, “down,” and salire, “to jump,” and indicated a tendency to go from one thing to another, to be aimless, unmethodical. One writer compares a desultory person to one who in the ring rides two or three horses at once, leaping from one to the other, never staying on the back of any one for a long period. Such methods may likewise be termed erratic, unplanned and disconnected. Obviously a desultory way of reading, studying and the like reaches no thorough accomplishment. The word "cursory” is comparable to it, with its idea of running over a subject hastily or superficially, but a desultory habit gets one nowhere, no conclusions can be guaranteed that are so hastily and loosely gathered. The first syllable of this word must be emphasized, des-ul-to-ry. Sound the e as in end, u as in circus, o as in obey, y as in many. “Several desultory attempts have been made to nullify the Eighteenth Amendment.”