Literary notes about Vagarious (AI summary)
In literature, "vagarious" is often used as an adjective to evoke a sense of unpredictability and whimsical irregularity. At times, it colors a physical or abstract scene, such as when tilted cots are imbued with an almost mystical, skewed configuration [1]. It can also describe the nature of personalities, marking characters as erratic or capricious, as seen in the portrayal of a cracky, unpredictable mind [2] and even the restless, wandering paths of celestial bodies [3]. Moreover, the term is invoked to contrast deliberate planning with the uncontrollable whims of fate, suggesting that chance often disrupts even the most calculated paths [4] or that one must avoid being too erratic under scrutiny [5], thereby enriching narratives with its complex, multifaceted character [6].
- She had a slow, vagarious notion that all of the cots were tilted, so that they appeared each on a cross, these mothers.
— from Star-Dust: A Story of an American Girl by Fannie Hurst - Mr. Wirgman's mind was somewhat attuned to psychology; but he was cracky and vagarious.
— from A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I by Augustus De Morgan - There are certain stars that have such irregular, uncertain, vagarious ways that they were called vagabonds, or planets, by the early astronomers.
— from Recreations in AstronomyWith Directions for Practical Experiments and Telescopic Work by Henry White Warren - Thus the two lovers of Melicent foreplanned the future, and did not admit into their accounting vagarious Dame Chance.
— from Domnei: A Comedy of Woman-Worship by James Branch Cabell - It would not do to be vagarious under such a shrewd examination; he must be exact.
— from Over the Pass by Frederick Palmer - Before coming to the library Nemos says that he led a "vagarious life" in Nevada.
— from The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. IVMarch, 1903-December, 1903 by Oregon Historical Society
