Surfing Quotenik, "a growing library of verified quotes," we came across the satisfyingly specific and undeservedly rare sedulous in a line pulled from a 1994 course syllabus written by David Foster Wallace while he was teaching at the University of Texas at Austin. (His revered novel Infinite Jest would come out two years later.)
Handwritten corrections on typed work (stuff crossed out, added, words respelled) are not only accepted but encouraged, since they’re usually signs of sedulous proofreading. Better right than neat (as long as it’s readable).
Sedulous describes a person who works with persistence and great care. It shares the suffix
-ous ("full of") with its synonym assiduous, but is more likely to be confused with seditious, which means "to work against government." Want to add it to the words you're learning on Vocabulary.com? Go to the sedulous definition page and click the learn button on the top of the page. Then read about the words Wallace circled in his dictionary in David Foster Wallace's Dictionary Words.
Looking to read and share more unusual quotes like this one? Quotenik, compiled by writer, archival researcher, and editor Sara Bader, is a well designed resource that invites users to submit quotes from "radio, television, the Internet, speeches, interviews, and other on- and offline sources."
