This week we'll have some words of action, some vigorous verbs you can use.

simper – to smile in a silly, self-conscious, often coy manner

One of my friends used to simper at men and say things like "but you're so intelligent", which used to make me want to hit him and vomit over her.
– Cambridge Evening News, Aug. 19, 2006

I wouldn't say that a simper is a "vigorous" action. : )

Agreed, Sean. I meant that the verb is a vigorous description, pithy or colorful, not that the action it names is vigorous. My language was at best ambiguity, at worst error.

divagate – to wander about; to stray from one place or subject to another. (In other words, to ramble or to digress.)
[Can someone find out whether this is akin to diverge or to vague?]

This seems to be used more in the sense of rambling thoughts than physically rambling about. But OED give the lovely quote, "So does a child's balloon divagate upon the currents of the air."

Poets talk of maidens' eyes, and divagate endlessly upon them …
– John Crowley, Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land

But now we must divagate from our major themes …
– Chester G. Starr, The Roman Empire, 27 B.C.-A.D. 476: A Study in Survival

From the Latin vagari, to wander. Akin to vagrant. Also, the vagus nerve, which meanders (another classic!) from the brain stem through multiple organs.

Is divagate any relation to diva? I like it!

Is divagate any relation to diva?

Diva is from a Latin word for goddess (diva (alternates with dea). Divigate is from the verb dīvagor from dis- 'apart, assunder' + vagor 'to wander' (as above).

wamble – to move unsteadily or with a weaving or rolling motion (noun: an upset stomach)

You meet frequently for dinner, after work, split whole liters of the house red, then wamble the two blocks east, twenty blocks south to your apartment …
– Lorrie Moore, Self-Help

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wordcrafter:
wamble – to move unsteadily or with a weaving or rolling motion


Reminds me of Elisabeth Beresford's universally loved Wombles. Wombles and wombling were widely used and found themselves in most dictionaries. They were leads in a children's TV series from 1968 onwards. For those with an advanced intelligence system like mine, i.e. well ensconced in second childhood, these lines may refresh your failing whotsits.

Underground, Overground, Wombling Free,
The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we.
Making good use of the things that we find,
Things that the everyday folks leave behind.

Uncle Bulgaria,
He can remember the days when he wasn't behind The Times,
With his map of the World.
Pick up the papers and take them to Tobermory!

Wombles are organized, work as a team.
Wombles are tidy and Wombles are clean.
Underground, Overground, wombling free,
The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we!

People don't notice us, they never see,
Under their noses a Womble may be.
We womble by night and we womble by day,
Looking for litter to trundle away.

We're so incredibly, utterly devious
Making the most of everything.
Even bottles and tins.
Pick up the pieces and make them into something new,
Is what we do!


Whether they wambled or not is a matter of opinion. What say you?

And then, of course, 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

Whenever my doctor prescribes Lisinopril, I subsequently involuntarily divigate in a most wambling manner

quote:

Originally posted by arnie:
And then, of course, 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

Not quite sure how that fits with wamble or Wombles. I'm confused (again).
Isn't it from Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll?

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

calumniate – to make maliciously false statements about
(noun: calumny – malicious falsehood made to injure another's reputation)

he will again begin to calumniate me with all the venom at his disposal.
– George Orwell, Burmese Days

He has crowned the audacity of this debate by venturing to rise here and calumniate me. …I will read from the debate … to show what I said in response to that calumny …
– Senator Charles Sumner, U.S. Senate, May 20, 1856

Let's carry the last quote a little further.

… he has alleged facts that are entirely without foundation, in order to heap upon me some personal obloquy. … no person with the upright form of man can be allowed, without violation to all decency, to switch out from his tongue the perpetual stench of offensive personality. Sir, that is not a proper weapon of debate, at least, on this floor. The noisome, squat, and nameless animal, to which I now refer, is not a proper model for an American Senator. Will the Senator from Illinois take notice?

MR. DOUGLAS: I will; and therefore will not imitate you, sir. … I would certainly never imitate you in that capacity, recognizing the force of the illustration.

Bonus word:
obloquy – abusive public condemnation

sunder – to split apart (implies by violence: to wrench apart)

A single word from the white men [at a sale of slaves] was enough – against all our wishes, prayers, and entreaties – to sunder forever the dearest friends, dearest kindred, and strongest ties known to human beings.
– Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: Written by Himself

Great Britain took advantage … to seize complete control of the Atlantic and thus to sunder the French forces in North America from sources of supply and reinforcement in France. Thus, the British were able to take France's possessions in North America.
– Chris Chant et al., Patrick O'Brian's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wordcrafter:
divagate – to wander about; to stray from one place or subject to another. (In other words, to ramble or to digress.)

[Can someone find out whether this is akin to diverge or to vague?]

A recent article relates vague and vagus and several other variants.
vagus

English vague as stated above is from Latin vagus 'wandering' via French. English diverge is from dis- 'apart' + vergo 'to bend' from PIE *wer- 'to turn, bend', cf. -ward (in inward, outward), weird, verse.

obnubilate – to becloud; to obscure
[from L. for cloud; akin to nuance]

This very obscure word seems more often used to mean making obscure to oneself, not to others.

It is the pity of the world, Dr McAdam, to see a man of your parts obnubilate his mind with the juice of the grape.
– Patrick O'Brian, The Mauritius Command

… how badly does the image of who we want to be obnubilate our sense of who we actually are?
– Herman Stark, A Fierce Little Tragedy (etc.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter, September 18, 2006 07:33

Let's end our weekly theme with a vigorous verb of convivial celebration. Let the party begin!

roister – to celebrate noisely and boisterously

They drink his wine, devour his stores, break up the furniture for firewood, roister all night, and sleep all day.
– Bernard Evslin, The Adventures Of Ulysses

Let us have language worthy of our world, a democratic style where rich and well-born nouns can roister with some sluttish verb yet find themselves content and uncomplained of.
– Michael Dirda, Book by Book: Notes on Reading And Life