Etymologically
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discourse

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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

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