desultory
adjective
Herman Wouk
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The Latin adjective desultorius was used by the ancients to refer to a circus performer (called a desultor) whose trick was to leap from horse to horse without stopping. It makes sense, then, that someone or something desultory "jumps" from one thing to another. (Desultor and desultorius, by the way, come from the Latin verb salire, meaning "to leap.") A desultory conversation leaps from one topic to another and doesn't have a distinct point or direction. A desultory student skips from one subject to another without applying serious effort to any particular one. A desultory comment is a digressive one that jumps away from the topic at hand. And a desultory performance is one resulting from an implied lack of steady, focused effort.
Synonyms
Examples of desultory in a Sentence
Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 27 June 2024
What can seem desultory to the point of randomness is actually quite purposeful.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2024
Lippmann never gave more than a desultory response.
—Annalee Newitz, Scientific American, 24 June 2024
His exhortation to designate the flatly fundamentally functional and decidedly desultory nondescript Liberty Loan Building as a National Historic Landmark is akin to memorializing a streetside waste receptacle, by mere virtue of the longevity of each.
—Washington Post, 21 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for desultory 
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“Desultory.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/desultory. Accessed 7 Jul. 2024.
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desultory
adjective
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