English
discursive
Discursive comes from Latin discursus ‘running about’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdiscursus‘running about’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600discursif
- Englishearliest quotation 1834discursive
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history not traced here.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdiscursus‘running about’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600discursif
- Englishearliest quotation 1834discursive
Earliest quotation: 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London: Richard Bentley: “This period had long since passed; the discursive reading,…”
Equivalent to discourse + -ive
Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- ‘to run’
…
Latin discurrō ‘run about’
Latin discursus ‘the act of running about’
Middle French discours ‘conversation, speech’
Middle English discours
English discourse
Linked words
through Latin discursus ‘running about’
Today it means
adj Tending to digress from the main point.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin discursus / discursive