different between vaguer vs vaguery

English

Adjective

vaguer

1. comparative form of vague: more vague

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vagor, vag?r?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /va.?e/

Verb

vaguer

1. (intransitive, dated or literary) to wander, to wander aimlessly

Usage notes

Not to be confused with vaquer or voguer.

Conjugation

Further reading

• “vaguer” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

vague +? -ery, perhaps influenced by vagary. Attested since at least the 1800s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ve????i/
• Homophone: vagary

Noun

vaguery (countable and uncountable, plural vagueries)

1. (uncountable) Vagueness, the condition of being vague.
   • 1859, New Exegesis of Shakespeare, page 245–246:

     […] this badge of rivalry and intrusion, and of the vaguery and vacillation which restrain them through dread of danger.

   • 1977 (first publication; republication in 2003), Tom Nairn, The Break-Up of Britain: crisis and neo-nationalism - Page 68:

     As a matter of fact, the particular breadth and vaguery of residual all-British consciousness decays more readily into racialism than into a defined, territorially restricted nationalism.

   • 1988, Kenneth Pickering, How to Study Modern Drama:

     There is a sharp and effective contrast between the incisiveness and energy of his speech and the vaguery and haziness he is attacking.
2. (countable) A vagueness, a thing which is vague, an example of vagueness.
3. (countable, in the plural) An eggcorn for vagary.

Translations

See also

• vagary