dis|course

dis|course «noun. DIHS krs, -kohrs, dihs KRS, -KOHRS; verb. dihs KRS, -KOHRS», noun, verb, -coursed, -cours|ing.

–n.

1. a long written or spoken discussion of some subject: »

Lectures and sermons are discourses.

SYNONYM(S): oration, treatise, essay.

2. talk; conversation: »

I…laid hold of that opportunity of entering into discourse with him (Jonathan Swift).

3. Archaic. the process or the faculty of reasoning.

4. Obsolete. the faculty of conversing.

–v.i.

1. to speak or write formally or at length on some subject: »

The scholar discoursed at great length on the poetic style of John Keats.

2. to talk; converse: »

Rather than he will not discourse he will hire men to hear him (Ben Jonson).

SYNONYM(S): confer.

–v.t. Archaic.

1. to utter (sounds or music): »

Give it breath with your mouth and it will discourse most eloquent music (Shakespeare).

2. to discuss; tell; narrate: »

Or by what means got'st thou to be released? Discourse, prithee, on this turret's top (Shakespeare).

╂[< Latin discursus, -ūs a running about (in Late Latin, discourse) < discurrere < dis- apart (in different directions) + currere to run]