assiduous

assiduous [əˈsɪdʒuəs] a.

1.) Of persons or agents: Constant in application to the business in hand, persevering, sedulous, unwearyingly diligent.
2.) Constantly endeavouring to please, obsequiously attentive. arch.
3.) Of actions: Unremitting, persistent, constant.
4.) Of things: Constant, regular. Obs. (O.E.D. 2nd Edition).

Etymology: From Latin assiduus, from assidere, to attend to : ad- + sedere, to sit.

   "John Eglinton looked in the tangled glowworm of his lamp.
   —The world believes that Shakespeare made a mistake, he said, and got out of it as quickly and as best he could.
   —Bosh! Stephen said rudely. A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
   Portals of discovery opened to let in the quaker librarian, softcreakfooted, bald, eared and assiduous" (Ulysses, James Joyce, 1922).

(Telemachus and Mentor, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1730) ________________________________________________________

Hi, all. This week's honors in the "Climbing the Mountain" challenge go to shari. She wrote:

The drawing she made of her mother was prima facie a propitiatory offering; more beauty was found in the lineament of the portrait than in reality. The rendering seemed emulous of Toulouse Lautrec, though it was unlikely, as her art studies were her violon d'Ingres, which she enjoyed hermetically.

Nice work, there, shari. It actually reads fairly well, considering. An honorable mention also goes to D4, who wrote a hilarious passage that made me question his sanity. (A highlight was: "a prima facie point of view would assume this meant he'd love condoms, when in reality, he's emulous towards them, wishing to some day become a latex balloon".) So, the challenge for next Monday is to use 5 of subaltern, solipsism, atavism, inchoate, verdant, lucubrate, and hoi polloi in a paragraph. Good luck and thanks for reading!