maunder

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The Word of the Day for February 26 is: 

maunder   \MAWN-der\   verb
     1 : chiefly Brit : grumble
     2 : to wander slowly and idly 
    *3 : to speak indistinctly or disconnectedly 

Example sentence:
     John had a tendency to maunder on about things of little interest, so
we often tried to limit our conversations with him.

Did you know?
     "Maunder" looks a lot like "meander," and that's not all the two
words have in common -- both mean "to wander aimlessly," either physically
or in speech. Some critics have suggested that while "meander" can
describe a person?s verbal and physical rambling, in addition to the
wanderings of things like paths and streams, "maunder" should be limited
to wandering words. The problem with that reasoning is that "maunder" has
been used of the physical movements of people since 1775, whereas
"meander" didn't acquire that use until 1831. These days, "meander" tends
to be the more common choice, although "maunder" does continue to turn up
in both applications.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. 





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