Word: discourse Part of Speech: noun 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. Pronunciation: /ˈdɪs.kɔːs/, /ˈdɪs.kɔːɹs/, /ˈdɪs.koː(ɹ)s/ 1. Verbal exchange, conversation. Labels: archaic, uncountable Example: 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: […] Example: 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. 2. Expression in words, either speech or writing. Labels: uncountable Example: 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. 3. A conversation. Labels: countable Example: 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. 4. A formal lengthy exposition of some subject, either spoken or written. Labels: countable Example: The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty. 5. Any rational expression, reason. Labels: countable Example: 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. Example: difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason 6. An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after Michel Foucault). Labels: countable Example: Furthermore, it should be recalled from the previous chapter that criminological discourse of the 1930s deemed every woman a potential criminal, implicitly including the domestic woman. Example: But equally important to the emergence of uniquely African-American queer discourses is the refusal of African-American movements for liberation to address adequately issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. 7. 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"). Labels: Internet, uncountable Example: We all know — or know now — the Internet meme known as “The Discourse,” which became popular on the social media site Tumblr in April of last year. Example: Nobody will ever know if Gene Roddenberry would hate DS9 had he lived to see it, but the controversy was patient zero for the arguments that define modern Star Trek discourse. 8. Dealing; transaction. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse / Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how / We got the victory.