oscitant (OS-i-tant) noun

   1. Yawning, gaping from drowsiness.

   3. Inattentive, dull, negligent.

[From Latin oscitant, present participle of oscitare, to yawn : os, mouth
+ citare, to move.]

   "What is disquieting is that with the consolidation of one-party control
   in the late 1920s after the Mexican Revolution, the portrait of the
   Mexican changes to one unusual in political representation, oscitant and
   weary."
   Paul Rich, Guillermo De Los Reyes, Mexican Caricature and the Politics of
   Popular Culture, Journal of Popular Culture, Summer 1996.

This week's theme: words to describe people.

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I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from
him. -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)

Everything you wanted to know about online journalism but were afraid to ask.
Here is your opportunity: On Monday, April 9, 2001, join us for an online
chat with Sreenath Sreenivasan, a professor at Columbia University's Graduate
School of Journalism. For more details, see http://wordsmith.org/chat

Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/oscitant.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/oscitant.ram