Word of the Day: anfractuosity

anfractuosity (n)

The quality of having many twists and turns.

"There are chance anfractuosities of ruin in the upper portions of the Coliseum which offer a very fair imitation of the rugged face of an Alpine cliff."
--Henry James, Italian Hours

Well, well! This is certainly an appropriate Word of the Day for my little blog cabin....

Speaking of Henry James, he's a pretty anfractuous writer, in my experience. Even the title of his most famous work, "The Turn of the Screw," is twisty. And here's a typically anfractuous Jamesian sentence:

"He fairly caught himself shooting rueful glances, shy looks of pursuit, toward the embodied influence, the definite adversary, who had, by a stroke of her own, failed him, and on a fond theory of whose palpable presence he had, under Mrs. Newsome's inspiration, altogether proceeded."

If you can parse that, you're a better ex-English major than I am.