Friday, March 26, 2010

Nemorivagant, adj.

I'll start off with one of my favourite obsolete words.

It means "Wandering in a wood or forest". Try to use that three times in a day and I bet you'll be able to! I have a feeling it probably originated in criticism of the Divine Comedy. As in the famous starting scene in which ol' Dants finds himself, well, wandering in a wood or forest.
In fact, Nemorivagent could even be metaphorically related to a crisis of faith or the soul. I mean, it isn't, but the potential for that allusive connection is so perfect that I'm quite tempted to try seeing if it catches on.

Speaking of etymology, (which I actually wasn't) "nemoralis" is Latin for "grove" (seen in the adjective "nemoral", meaning of a forest or grove). The second half is related to "vagrant", a word in everyday parlance.

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