Elucubrate
"To produce a literary work by expendature of 'midnight oil.' Formed of elucubrare, to compose by lamplight.'"--James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901
"To doe a thing by candlelight."--Henry Cockeram's Interpreter of Hard English Words, 1623
Birthday of English poet John Milton (1608-1674), who clarified the need for dictionaries, writing, "All arts acknowledge that then only we know certainly, when we can define, for definition is that which refines the pure essence of things from the circumstance." When asked how Milton could write such a monumental work as Paradise Lost and fare so poorly with sonnets, Samuel Johnson replied, "Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a colossus from rock, but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones."
Hmm ... I think that's what I should put as my profession from now on, "Elucubratist."
-The Gneech
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the_gneech- John "The Gneech" Robey
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What's the daytime version of an elucubratist?
V.
And strictly speaking, if you take it from the Latin root, to "elucubrate" should actually mean "to compose with difficulty" ... the lamplight part seems to have been worked in by popular use.
-TG
...he said, posting to LJ.
:::shrug::: Haven't seen you 'round lately, thought you were slumberin' ;-)
V.
Besides, I've been around! You're the one who's never there! ;P
-TG
V.
*pout*
-TG