nugae
Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- noun-plural Trifles; jests.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun-plural Trifles; things of little value; trivial verses.
Examples
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Some confessors there be who laugh within their hearts at these sorrows of lovers, as if they were mere "nugae" and featherweights: others there are who wax impatient, holding all love for sin in some degree, and forgetting that Monseigneur St. Peter himself was a married man, and doubtless had his own share of trouble and amorous annoy when he was winning the lady his wife, even as other men.
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Dividing his life and his work between politics and leisured retirement, he wrote light poems (nugae), verse panegyrics, and letters, which give a vivid description of Romans and barbarians in fifth-century Gaul.
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He was happy at that hour in dispensing wisdom or nugae to his hearers, like the Western sun whose habit it is, when he is fairly treated, to break out in quiet splendours, which by no means exhaust his treasury.
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My heart sickened within me; but, as I caught the eager glance of the poor author, I brightened up my countenance into an expression of pleasure, and appeared to read and comment upon the difficiles nugae with an interest commensurate to his own.
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“Pshaw — nugae, good Gammer Sludge,” answered the preceptor; “I ensure you that Satan, if there be Satan in the case, shall not touch a thread of his garment; for Dickie can say his
Note
The word 'nugae' comes from a Latin word meaning 'jests' or 'trifles'.
