Talk:desultory

"Leaping or skipping about." I think this is (at best) an obsolete meaning, and certainly misleading when given as the first sense (even if it was the original sense). Few other dictionaries give anything like this at all. The OED does give "Skipping about, jumping or flitting from one thing to another; irregularly shifting, devious; wavering, unsteady. lit. and fig." as the oldest meaning, but its most recent example of this is from 1825. Furthermore, the part of the OED definition after the semicolon gives even this meaning very different connotations (much closer to the other, more modern meanings) from the bald "Leaping or skipping about."


 * Thanks for bringing this up. That wording was from Webster's 1913. I have added an "obsolete" tag and the entertaining etymology. DCDuring TALK 12:48, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

showing little effort or interest
- Cambridge English Dictionary: 'without a clear plan or purpose and showing little effort or interest'

- Collins English Dictionary: '...done in an unplanned and disorganized way, and without enthusiasm'

- 'lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm'

- '(of conversation or speech) going constantly from one subject to another in a halfhearted way; unfocused'

This often-included element seems to be entirely lacking in the definitions given so far. Heavenlyblue (talk) 19:28, 15 March 2021 (UTC)