nubivagant

English

Etymology

From Latin nubes (“cloud”) + vagant- (“wandering”).

Adjective

nubivagant (comparative more nubivagant, superlative most nubivagant)

1. (rare) Wandering in the clouds; moving through the air.
   • 1839 October, J. Cypress, Jr., “More Collineomania: A Fit, Brought On By Looking At The Picture”, in American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine:

     On the whole, although a man must do his duty, "painful as it is," (as a Judge would say to a felon whom he is going to sentence to death,) yet it would be better for a collineomaniac to think, now and then, of the desolation he is bringing down upon happy nests; of how many little broods he may cause to starve; of how many robbed mates he will send, nubivagant, whistling and singing tremulous love-notes through the air, vainly searching and calling for their lost spouses, never, never to return!

   • 2011 August 12, Katie Abrahams, “Audience gets the royal treatment from Prince”, in The University Times:

     I suspect I will never again see a crowd of 35,000 transform with such speed into nubivagant hip-swivelling beasts.

   • 2012, Mark Forsyth, The Horologian: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words‎^[1], Berkley, →ISBN:

     Aircraft are all nubivagant, gorillas are all nemorivagant, and a holiday in Snowdonia could be described as a montivagant weekend.