Word of the Day for Monday, February 27, 2012
flexuous \FLEK-shoo-uhs\,
adjective:
Full of bends or curves; sinuous.
Her flexuous and stealthy figure became an integral part of the scene. At times her whimsical fancy would intensify natural processes around her till they seemed a part of her own story.
-- Thomas Hardy, "Tess of the D'Urbervilles"
What is anomalous about Nietzsche in this context is scarcely the hold this plot has on him, but indeed the flexuous sweetness with which sometimes he uniquely invests it...
-- Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Epistemology of the Closet"
Flexuous is derived from the Latin word flexuĊsus which meant full of turns or crooked. This is an interesting example where the suffix changes the implication of the word. Unlike the more common word flexible, which means "capable of being bent" because of the suffix -ible, flexuous has the suffix, -ous meaning "full of."
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