Appealing to sexual desire

appealing to sexual desire And if one were told that a nurse had discovered a hospital patient "jactitating." one might be led by the sound of it to suppose that the patient was doing something less socially acceptable than "moving or stirring about violently." Curiously the noun "jactitation" means something remarkably different. It's "a false boast or claim that causes injury to another."

"Salacious" (above), another word with a curious etymology, means "appealing to sexual desire" and comes, like "desultory," from the Latin verb "salire," to leap. You can make the connection via Shakespeare's Henry IV, where Prince Hal twits Falstaff about his proclivity to visit "leaping houses."

While these words and phrases may or may not have for you a practical day-to-day usefulness (except maybe for "salacious"), I see them as offering a sort of linguistic consciousness-raising, expanding ways in which we can explore and enjoy our protean tongue.