The word for today is…

meander (verb) – 1. To follow a winding and turning course.

  1. To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction.
  2. To speak or write in sustained fashion on a number of loosely connected topics.
  3. To be directed in various directions or at multiple objects.

(noun) – 1. often meanders A bend, turn, or winding, as of a stream or path.

  1. A portion, side trip, or episode in a longer journey.
  2. A passage on a subtopic or digression in a longer piece of discourse.
  3. An ornamental pattern of winding or intertwining lines, used in art and architecture.

Source : The Free Dictionary

Etymology : 1570s, “confusion, intricacy” (a sense now obsolete), from Latin meander “a winding course,” from Greek Maiandros, name of a river in Caria noted for its winding course (the Greeks used the name figuratively for winding patterns). In English in reference to river courses from 1590s. Sense of “a winding course, a winding or turning in a passage” is from 1630s. Adjectival forms that have been tried are meandrine (1846); meandrous (1650s); meandrian (c. 1600); meandry (1610s).

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Peter is a fourth-generation New Zealander, with his mother's and father's folks having arrived in New Zealand in the 1870s. He lives in Lower Hutt with his wife, some cats and assorted computers. His...