divagate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to wander away from the main subject while speaking or writing

   I tend to divagate when a minor detail catches my attention.

2. 2
   verb

   to wander physically from a course or place

   The hikers chose to divagate through the surrounding meadows.

Borrowed in the late sixteenth century from Latin divagari, meaning to wander about or stray, from dis-, in different directions, and vagari, to wander. Its common literary use shifted from physical wandering to digression in speech or writing.

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