vagitate

English

Etymology 1

Attested earliest as a ghost word in the 1928 volume of the New English Dictionary On Historical Principles (NED). Some later uses may have been based (directly or indirectly) on this entry.

The editors of the NED interpreted it as a borrowing from Latin vagitō, vagitāre, an obscure medieval verb built on the root of Classical Latin vagor, vagārī (“to ramble, stroll about”), from vagus (“wandering”).

Verb

vagitate (third-person singular simple present vagitates, present participle vagitating, simple past and past participle vagitated)

1. To wander or move at random.
   • 1987, Buddhist Studies, volumes 11–12, Delhi: University of Delhi, →ISSN, →OCLC, page iv:

     Even with the emergence of the ideas of self-assertion among the Asians, the Imperialists are not only trying to dominate the region through the system of remote control, but are also vagitating around to get a chance again to enter the ground and graze wantonly.

   • 2008, Davis Schneiderman, Dis: (or, The Shadow of the Dome of Pleasure), Buffalo, N.Y.: BlazeVOX Books, →ISBN, page 28:

     My head spins like the vagitated gears of a drunken kaleidoscope, and my eyelids droop like the shade.

   • 2019, Richard Marshall, “Defunge”, in Andrew Gallix, editor, We'll Never Have Paris, London: Repeater, →ISBN, page 444:

     What next in the corpse light? To a studio at the top of No. 6 Rue des Favorites before vagitating to the outside vantage of his seventh-floor flat in an apartment block at 38 Boulevard Saint-Jacques with the prison in its brevity across the way.

     Note. Despite the different sense, this may allude to Samuel Beckett's use of 'vagitate' (quoted below).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin vāgiō, vāgīre (“to wail, to squall (as an infant), to cry out”) via a frequentative form vāgītō, vāgītāre, attested in medieval Latin as a verb meaning "to wail, to cry out in distress (of an infant); to cry out (of a hare)". Compare French vagir, English vagitus (“the crying of a newborn baby”), vagient (“crying like a child”).

Verb

vagitate (third-person singular simple present vagitates, present participle vagitating, simple past and past participle vagitated)

1. To wail, mewl (as an infant).
   • 1956 [1951], Samuel Beckett, translated by Samuel Beckett, Malone Dies, translation of Malone meurt (in French):

     And the rattle, what about the rattle? Perhaps it is not de rigueur after all. To have vagitated and not be bloody well able to rattle.

     [original: Et le râle, qu’est-ce qu’on en fait. Peut-être n’est-il pas de rigueur après tout. Avoir vagi, puis ne pas être foutu de râler.]

   • 2000, Andrew Huxley, “Rhodes, Arakan, Grand Cayman: Three Versions of Offshore”, in Ian Edge, editor, Comparative Law in Global Perspective: Essays in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the SOAS Law Department, page 159:

     The crucial difference, however, is that in all but one of these English situations, the equitable ownership reappears within at most eighty years: the discretion is exercised, the estate is administered, the unborn vagitate.