digress

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dīgressus (“turned aside”),^[2][3][4][5] the past participle of dīgredior (“to go aside, depart, deviate”),^[2][6][7] formed from dis- (“apart, aside”) and gradior (“to step, go”),^[2][6][8] which is related to gradus (“step”),^[7][9] from Proto-Indo-European *ghredh- (“to walk, go”).^[2][10] Barnhart and Etymonline allow that it may instead be a back-formation from digression,^[3][2] which is recorded much earlier, about 1385 in Chaucer's “Troilus and Criseyde”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To turn aside, to get off the main subject: 1529, in the writings of Sir Thomas More,^[3][4] and 1530 in Palsgrave in the OED.^[6] Barnhart also mentions an earlier use, undated, for departing from the language of an original in translating.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense of leaving the subject came first and is still the commonest.^[6] In the 16th century the word also meant to go aside from a track (from 1552),^[6] to deviate from a rule or standard (1571–1611)^[6][11] and to stray from the right path, to transgress (1541–1640).^[6] A noun digress, from dīgressus (“departure”), was used for a digression from 1598 to 1679.^[6] Johnson (1755) still put the physical sense first, to turn out of the road, before departing from the design of a discourse.^[12]

Timeline

• 1529 – to get off the main subject.^[3][4] The OED's first record is from 1530, in Palsgrave.^[6]
• 1541 – to stray from the right path, to transgress (obsolete by 1640).^[6]
• 1552 – to go aside from a course or track.^[6]
• 1571 – to deviate from a rule or standard (obsolete by 1611).^[6]
• 1598 – noun, a digression (obsolete by 1679).^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To leave the main subject for a time in speech or writing: The lecturer digressed to tell a story about his dog.^[5][4][6]
2. To wander from one's path or main direction; to deviate.^[5][6]
3. (obsolete, 1571–1611) To depart from a rule, standard or course of action.^[6][11]

Word family

• digresser
• digressingly

Related words

• digression
• digressive
• grade
• gradual
• congress

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.