I am catching up with the past, voraciously reading through the pages of William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice with a copyright date of 1979. A literary marvel, the author provides delightful entertainment from the first page to the last.

Styron provides a feast of vocabulary fit for kings and other high-level royalty. His writing is such that any average person will be sent rushing to the dictionary for an explanation of many of his deliciously chosen word treats.

Many of these will not be found in the Oxford Pocket Dictionary and you will have to refer to more comprehensive publications, and of course, there’s always Google.

Today, the word I’m choosing is sedulous.

Sedulous, according to Dictionary.com has a usage dating back to the 1530s, from Latin sedulus “attentive, painstaking, diligent, busy, zealous, “probably from sedulo (adv.) “sincerely, diligently,” from sedolo “without deception or guile,” from se- “without, apart”

• Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper (com)

Merriam Webster defines sedulous as 1:  involving or accomplished with careful perseverance, for example, sedulous craftsmanship and 2:  diligent in application or pursuit, a sedulous student.

The adverb is sedulously and sedulousness is the noun.

Vocabulary.com says “a sedulous person is someone who works hard and doesn’t give up easily. If you make repeated and sedulous attempts to fix a leaky pipe and it only makes things worse, it might be time to go online and find the number of a plumber.”

I like the note of humour, thank you Vocabulary.com

Enoxford dictionaries.com offers these synonyms: diligent, careful, meticulous, thorough, assiduous, attentive, industrious, laborious, hard-working, conscientious, ultra-careful, punctilious, scrupulous, painstaking, searching, close, elaborate, minute, studious, rigorous, particular.

With this beautiful adjective added to your word power, I am confident your writing aspirations will mature and soon you will be the William Styron of the future. I look forward to reading your masterpieces.

Comments and feedback welcome.