Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday June 9, 2010
noctivagant \noc-tiv-A-gant\ , adjective:
Pertaining to going about in the night; night-wandering.
My mother whelped me in a mess of blankets while my noctivagant father towed in the big ships. His was the night vessel, the vessel on oily waters, his was the light shining in the darkness, come home, come home.
-- Jeanette Winterson, Gut Symmetries
The bat that can resist all these inducements must be little better than a brickbat, and yet who ever knew one of those wayward, noctivagant creatures to condescend even to such terms?
-- James Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton, The Complete Writings of James Russell Lowell: Letters
Noctivagant is formed from two Latin roots, noctis, "night", and vagans, "to wander about."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for noctivagant
