discourse

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈdɪs.kɔːs/, /dɪsˈkɔːs/ (UK); /ˈdɪs.kɔːɹs/, /dɪsˈkɔːɹs/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English discours, borrowed from Latin discursus (“a running about”) (in Late Latin "conversation", in Medieval Latin "reasoning"),^[2][3][4][5] with its form influenced by course;^[5][6][7] Etymonline and Klein route it through French discours.^[4][8] The Latin noun comes from discurrō (“to run about”),^[3][4] from dis- (“apart”) and currō (“to run”),^[3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The process or faculty of reasoning: about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Weekley explains the old sense as the movement of the mind from one thought to the next.^[9] Shakespeare's discourse of reason in Hamlet kept this meaning, which Trench notes puzzled later commentators.^[10][2] Under the influence of Latin and of French discourir (“to talk”), the word moved on to a formal treatment of a subject in speech or writing (1533), and conversation, talk (1545);^[2][11] Barnhart dates conversation to 1559 and formal speech or writing to 1581.^[5] The verb, at first "to run or travel over" (1540s), meant to talk at length from the 1560s.^[4][5] Linguists use it for a unit of text longer than a sentence.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – the faculty of reasoning.^[2]
• 1533 – a formal treatment of a subject.^[2]
• 1545 – conversation, talk.^[2]
• 1546 – the verb.^[6]
• 1603 – dealings, communication, in Hamlet.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Spoken or written communication; conversation.
2. A formal, lengthy treatment of a subject, such as a lecture, sermon or treatise.
3. (linguistics) A unit of language longer than a sentence.

Verb

1. To speak or write at length about a subject.

Word family

• discourser
• direct discourse
• indirect discourse
• discourse analysis
• universe of discourse

Related words

• course
• discursive
• current
• concourse

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins