Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Going about, as from market-place to market-place; walking or wandering from house to house; vagrant; vagabond.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Wandering fromplace to place ormarket to market. - adjective by extension
Indirect ,roundabout , or unnecessarilycomplex .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Proverb: I mean those circumforaneous Wits whom every Nation calls by the Name of that Dish of Meat which it loves best.
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In the first Place I must observe, that there is a Set of merry Drolls, whom the common People of all Countries admire, and seem to love so well, _that they could eat them_, according to the old Proverb: I mean those circumforaneous Wits whom every Nation calls by the Name of that
The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays Joseph Addison 1695
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Let the megalophonous grasshopper sound a blast and summon hither the perfunctory and circumforaneous Tumble-Bug, to the end that excavations may be made and learning gather new treasures. "
Sketches New And Old Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 1922
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Let the megalophonous grasshopper sound a blast and summon hither the perfunctory and circumforaneous Tumble-Bug, to the end that excavations may be made and learning gather new treasures. "
Sketches New and Old Mark Twain 1872
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Let the megalophonous grasshopper sound a blast and summon hither the perfunctory and circumforaneous Tumble-Bug, to the end that excavations may be made and learning gather new treasures. "
Sketches New and Old, Part 3. Mark Twain 1872
pavonine commented on the word circumforaneous
Going about or abroad; walking or wandering from house to
house.
November 25, 2007