# digression
## English
### Alternative forms

* (obsolete) degression, disgression

### Etymology

From Old French digressiun or disgressiun, from Latin dīgressiōnem, from dīgressus + -iō (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs), the past passive participle of dīgredior (“to step away, to digress”), from dis- + gradior (“to step, walk, go”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /dʌɪˈɡɹɛʃən/, /dɪˈɡɹɛʃən/
* (US) IPA: /daɪˈɡɹɛʃən/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

digression (countable and uncountable, plural digressions)
* An aside, an act of straying from the main subject in speech or writing.
    The lectures included lengthy digressions on topics ranging from the professor's dog to the meaning of life.
** 2022 November 21, Barney Ronay, “Iran’s brave and powerful gesture is a small wonder from a World Cup of woe”, in The Guardian‎:History tells us stodgy, cautious stuff, cardigan-football is the way to go here. The 1966 World Cup kicked off with 0-0 draw against Uruguay so tedious the Guardian match report contains a whimsical digression on the writer’s urge to drift off to sleep in the second half.
* (generally uncountable) The act of straying from the main subject in speech or writing, (rhetoric) particularly for rhetorical effect.
    make digression... by way of digression...
* (obsolete) A deviancy, a sin or error, an act of straying from the path of righteousness or a general rule.
** 1517, Stephen Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, i, ll. 12 ff:Nature... More stronger hadde her operacyon Than she hath nowe in her dygressyon.
* (now rare) A deviation, an act of straying from a path.
** 1670, Guillaume Girard, translated by Charles Cotton, History of the Life of the Duke of Espernon, Bk. i, Ch. iv, p. 144:By this little digression into Gascony, the Duke had an opportunity... to re-inforce himself with some particular Servants of his.
* (astronomy, physics) An elongation, a deflection or deviation from a mean position or expected path.
** 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Bk. VI, Ch. iv, p. 288:This digression [of the Sun] is not equall, but neare the Æquinoxiall intersections, it is right and greater, near the Solstices, more oblique and lesser.

#### Synonyms

* (rhetorical device): digressio, ecbole

#### Derived terms

* digressional
* digressionary

#### Related terms

* digress

#### See also

* detour

### References

* “digression, n..”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1896.

## French
### Etymology

From Latin dīgressiōnem.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /di.ɡʁɛ.sjɔ̃/ ~ /di.ɡʁe.sjɔ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

digression f (plural digressions)
* digression

### Further reading

* “digression”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Middle English
### Noun

digression
* digression
** c. 1380s, [Geoffrey Chaucer, William Caxton, editor], The Double Sorow of Troylus to Telle Kyng Pryamus Sone of Troye [...] [Troilus and Criseyde], [Westminster]: Explicit per Caxton, published 1482, →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], book I, [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:It were a long disgression Fro my matere.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

## Swedish
### Noun

digression c
* (somewhat solemn) a digression

#### See also

* sidospår
* stickspår
* utvikning

### References

* digression in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* digression in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* digression in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)