Word of the Day
: December 27, 2006vertiginous
playWhat It Means
1 a : characterized by or suffering from vertigo or dizziness
b : inclined to frequent and often pointless change : inconstant
2 : causing or tending to cause dizziness
3 : marked by turning : rotary
vertiginous in Context
In Moscow, we saw "Swan Lake" from the vertiginous perspective of the Bolshoi Theatre's uppermost balcony.
Did You Know?
"It is generally necessary to avoid crowded rooms and the vertiginous influence of the dance," one 19th-century medical work advised. We're not sure what condition this advice was aimed at, but it may well have been "vertigo," a disordered state characterized by whirling dizziness. "Vertiginous," from the Latin "vertiginosus," is the adjective form of "vertigo," which in Latin means "a turning or whirling action." Both words descend from the Latin verb "vertere," meaning "to turn." ("Vertiginous" and "vertigo" are just two of an almost dizzying array of "vertere" offspring, from "adverse" to "vortex.") The "dizzying" sense of "vertiginous" is often used figuratively, as in "vertiginous medical discoveries may drastically change life in the 21st century."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
