Word of the Day - 09/23/26
cursory
/'kɜrsəri/(adj.): hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
The director gave only a cursory glance at the report before signing off on it, missing several critical errors.
Word Origin
The word 'cursory' originated in the late 16th century. It comes from the Latin word 'cursorius', meaning 'of a runner' or 'relating to a race'. This in turn derives from 'cursor', meaning 'runner', which itself comes from 'cursus', the past participle of 'currere' meaning 'to run'. The word can be broken down into 'curs-' (from 'currere', to run) and '-ory' (a suffix meaning 'of or relating to').
Words with similar origins include 'current', 'course', 'concur', 'recur', 'precursor', 'currency', 'curriculum', and 'courier', all stemming from the Latin root 'currere' (to run) or related forms.