discourse
/ˈdɪs.kɔːɹs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.83 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after Michel Foucault).
Countable
noun
Lengthy, often heated debate over controversial subject matter, particularly within fandom and activist spaces. Sometimes rendered as a proper noun with the definite article (i.e. "the Discourse").
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "UUho when he ſhal embrace you in his arms UUil tell how many thouſand men he ſlew. And when you looke for amorous diſcourſe, Will rattle foorth his facts of war and blood: […]"
- "Two or three of the gentlemen sat near him, and I caught at times scraps of their conversation across the room. At first I could not make much sense of what I heard; for the discourse of Louisa Eshton and Mary Ingram, who sat nearer to me, confused the fragmentary sentences that reached me at intervals."
- "Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story."
- "It ſeems, the Minds of theſe People are ſo taken up with intenſe Speculations, that they neither can ſpeak, nor attend to the Diſcourſes of others, without being rouzed by ſome external Taction upon the Organs of Speech and Hearing; for which reaſon, thoſe Perſons who are able to afford it always keep a Flapper (the Original is Climenole) in their Family, as one of their Domeſticks, nor ever walk abroad or make Viſits without him."
- "The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty."
- "Sure he that made us with such large discourse, / Looking before and after, gave us not / That capability and godlike reason / To rust in us unused."
Etymology
From Middle English discours, borrowed from Middle French discours (“conversation, speech”), from Latin discursus (“the act of running about”), from Latin discurrō (“run about”), from dis- (“apart”) + currō (“run”). Spelling modified by influence of Middle French cours (“course”). Doublet of discursus.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɪs.kɔːɹs/
- British English: /ˈdɪs.kɔːs/