divagate
/ˈdʌɪvəɡeɪt
/verb [no object] literary
Stray or digress: Yeats divagated into Virgil’s territory only once...
- Willpower he was not acquainted with, lest he would have divagated from his fated path long ago.
- Well, that seemed to be as good a target to divagate towards as any, so he set off for it.
- Others have divagated at length on the accuracy of these particular statements, and I will leave that task to them.
Derivatives
divagation
/ noun ...- The first sentence, with unnecessary sub-clauses and other literary divagations, is less than Orwellian in its intent.
- Psych influences are revealed in their lyrics: ‘His season in the Zensong there's a tiny smell of divagation, now.’
- If it sounds all over the place, it is, but because Brakes couch their divagations in directness and simplicity, it all hangs together.
Origin
Late 16th century: from Latin divagat- 'wandered about', from the verb divagari, from di- 'widely' + vagari 'wander'.