Desultory

Definition: Desultory

Desultory

Adjective

1. Marked by lack of definite plan or regularity or purpose; jumping from one thing to another; "desultory thoughts"; "the desultory conversation characteristic of cocktail parties".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "desultory" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references)

Etymology: Desultory \Des"ul*to*ry\, adjective. [Latin expression desultorius, from desultor leaper, from desilire, desultum, to leap down; de salire to leap. See Saltation.]. (references)

Literature

Synonyms: Desultory

Agitation

Adjective: shaking; Verb: agitated tremulous; desultory, subsultory; saltatoric; quasative; shambling; giddy-paced, saltatory, convulsive, unquiet, restless, all of a twitter.

Changeableness

Unstaid, inconstant; unsteady, unstable, unfixed, unsettled; fluctuating; Verb: restless; agitated; erratic, fickle; irresolute; capricious; touch and go; inconsonant, fitful, spasmodic; vibratory; vagrant, wayward; desultory; afloat; alternating; alterable, plastic, mobile; transient; wavering.

Deviation

Adjective: deviating; Verb: aberrant, errant; excursive, discursive; devious, desultory, loose; rambling; stray, erratic, vagrant, undirected, circuitous, indirect, zigzag; crab-like.

Discontinuity

Adjective: discontinuous, unsuccessive, broken, interrupted, dicousu; disconnected, unconnected; discrete, disjunctive; fitful; (irregular); spasmodic, desultory; intermitting, occasional; Verb:, intermittent; alternate; recurrent; (periodic).

Disorder

Adjective: disorderly, orderless; out of order, out of place, out of gear; irregular, desultory; anomalous; (unconformable); acephalous, deranged; aimless; disorganized; straggling; unmethodical,

Irregularity of recurrence

Dj. irregular, uncertain, unpunctual, capricious, desultory, fitful, flickering; rambling, rhapsodical; spasmodic; immethodical, unmethodical, variable.

Multiformity

Adjective: polymorphous, multiform, multifold, multifarious, multigenerous, multiplex; heterogeneous, diversified, dissimilar, various, varied, variform; manifold, many-sided; variegated, motley, mosaic; epicene, indiscriminate, desultory, irregular; mixed, different, assorted, mingled, odd, diverse, divers; all manner of; of every description, of all sorts and kinds; et hoc genus omne; and what not? de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis.

Crosswords: Desultory

Books

• Desultory Correspondence: An Interview With Paul Bowles on Gertrude Stein (reference)

• Desultory thoughts in London (reference)

  (more book examples)

Albanian

pa lidhje (discursive, disjointed, extraneous, inapposite, inconsequent, rambling, unconnected), josistematik, i rastësishëm (accidental, casual, chanceful, coincidental, fortuitous, incident, incidental, lucky, odd, random, sporadic), i paqëllim (aimless, endless, inadvertent, inexpedient), i larmë (dappled, medley, mottled, pied, punctate, spotted, varicolored, varicoloured, variegated). (various references)

Arabic 

‏مفكك (disassembled, disconnected, disjointed), ‏غير منهجي (unsystematic), ‏غير ذى منهج. (various references)

Bulgarian 

разхвърлян (higgledy-piggledy, incoherent, messy, pell mell, piggish, scattered, unkempt, untidy), несвързан (confused, delirious, disconnected, discontinuous, discrete, disjointed, incoherent, inconsequent, irrelative, loose, rambling, rhapsodic, scrappy, unconnected, unrelated), непоследователен (contradictious, fanciful, incoherent, inconsecutive, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, undigested), безцелен (aimless, meaningless, objectless, pointless, purposeless). (various references)

Czech

tìkavý (flighty, rambling, runabout, volatile, wandering, wool gathering, woolgathering), povrchní (airy, casual, cheap, dollish, facile, frivolous, lip-deep, perfunctory, scrappy, shallow, sketchy, skin deep, superficial), nesouvislý (disconnected, discontinuous, disjointed, incoherent, rambling), nesoustavný (hit or miss, unsystematic), nepodstatný (immaterial, irrelevant, piddling, unimportant), nedùsledný (inconsecutive, inconsequent, inconsistent), nedùležitý (immaterial, minor, small, trivial, unimportant). (various references)

Danish

springende tankegang (alogical thinking, desultory thinking, thinking disorder, thought disorder). (various references)

Farsi 

پرت (Aback, Faraway, Hurl, Remote, Solitary, Wide), درهم وبرهم (Imbroglio, Sloppy, Turbid, Unorganized, Untidy, Woebegone), بی قاعده (Informal, Loose), بی ترتیب (Anomaly, Irregular), بی ربط (Disjointed, Impertinent, Incoherent, Irrelevant, Loose, Rigmarole). (various references)

Finnish

hajanainen (disconnected, incoherent, scattered), hajan (disconnected, incoherent, scattered). (various references)

French

sans méthode. (various references)

German

unzusammenhängende (disjointedly). (various references)

Greek 

μη συστηματικόσ, άτακτος (disorderly, misbehaved, naughty), ακανόνιστος (ragged), ασύνδετοσ (disconnected, unattached, unconnected), απρογράμμιστος. (various references)

Hebrew 

לא שטתי (unsystematic). (various references)

Hungarian

rendszertelen (casual, irregular), kapkodó (abrupt, precipitate), ötletszerű. (various references)

Indonesian

tak tentu (contingent, indefinite). (various references)

Italian

sconnesso (disconnected, disjointed, incoherent, rambling, scrappy), saltuario (discursive, irregular, occasional, snatchy). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

散漫 (diffuse, distracted, half-hearted, loose, vague). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

まんぜんたる (rambling, random), さんまん (diffuse, distracted, half-hearted, loose, vague). (various references)

Pig Latin

esultoryday.(various references)

Portuguese

desligado (disconnected, incoherent, off, out, rambling, scrappy, separate, unconnected), desconexo (disconnected, fragmentary, incoherent, rambling, scrappy, unconnected, unrelated), volúvel (curling, flighty, glib, light-minded, mutable, versatile, voluble), variável (baffling, changeable, choppy, mutable, uncertain, unequable, unequal, variant, various, versatile), sem método, inconstante (astatic, capricious, changeable, changeful, fanciful, fickle, flighty, giddy, impermanent, inconstant, light-minded, mutable, shifting, skittish, uncertain, unequable, unequal, unreliable, unstable, unsure, variable, versatile). (various references)

Romanian

discontinuu (discontinuous, discontinuously), nesistematic (immethodical), nemetodic (immethodical), abrupt (abrupt, abruptly, arduous, bluffy, bold, craggy, disjointed, harsh, perpendicular, precipitate, precipitous, rapid, sharp, steep). (various references)

Russian 

отрывочный (fragmentary), несвязный (incoherent), несистематический (unsystematic, unsystematical). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

u neredu (haywire, mess, messy, out of order), nepovezan (asyndetic, disconnected, discontinuous, incoherent, unbounded, unconnected, unrelated), isprekidan (abrupt, broken, discontinuous). (various references)

Spanish

inconexo (disconnected, disjointed, incoherent, unrelated). (various references)

Swedish

osammanhängande (incoherent). (various references)

Turkish

düzensiz (chaotic, disordered, disorderly, disorganized, erratic, excursive, fitful, freehand, haywire, hugger mugger, huggermugger, indigested, inordinate, irregular, jerky, nonuniform, non-uniform, out of order, out of square, out of trim, out-of-balance, patchily, patchy, ragged, rambling, snatchy, snuffy, unequal, unkempt, unsteady, untidy), tutarsız (abrupt, as thin as a wafer, choppy, conflicting, contradictious, contradictory, disconnected, discursive, disjointed, double-minded, incoherent, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, precarious, rambling, unconnected, wafer-thin, wayward), rasgele (aimlessly, at a venture, at haphazard, at random, by chance, freehand, haphazard, haphazardly, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, indiscriminate, offhand, promiscuous, random, scratch, stray, wild), maymun iştahlı (fickle, flighty, temperamental, whimsey, whimsical, whimsy), istikrarsız (changeable, changeful, choppy, fluid, precarious, undecided, unequal, unstable, unsteady), gelişigüzel (at haphazard, at random, by chance, by fits and starts, casual, cursory, excursive, go-as-you-please, haphazard, helter-skelter, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, indiscriminate, promiscuous, random, scratch, scratchy). (various references)

Ukrainian

уривчастий (curt, fitful, fragmentary, jerky, patchy, scrappy, snippy), несистематичний (unsystematic), незв'язний (disjointed, incoherent, non-coherent, unconnected), недоланий. (various references)

Vietnamese 

rời rạc (fragmentary, incohesive, rigmarole, sporadic, sporadical, straggling, straggly, unconnected), linh tinh (divers, scratch), không mạch lạc (incoherent), không hệ thống; lung tung. (various references)

Misspellings

"Desultory" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: decultured, desoltory, desulatory, desulltory, desulory, desultary, desultoy, desultroy, desultry, disultory. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: delusory, elytrous, urostyle.

-2 letters: destroy, detours, dourest, drylots, elusory, loudest, lustred, oldster, redouts, restudy, rousted, rustled, stroyed, strudel, tousled, yodlers.

-3 letters: detour, dorsel, doters, dourly, douser, dryest, drylot, duster, louder, loured, loused, louted, lusted, luster, lustre, odyles, oldest, ostler, ousted, ouster, outers, oyster, redout, resold, result, retold, roused, routed, routes, rudely, rudest, rusted.

+2 letters: desultorily, dexterously.

+3 letters: adulterously, surefootedly, thunderously, tremendously.

+4 letters: adventurously, deleteriously, subordinately.

+5 letters: ambidextrously, discourteously, leukodystrophy, polyneuritides, stoutheartedly.