Etymology: < classical Latin discursus action of running off in different directions, dispersal, action of running about, bustling activity, (of celestial objects) course, in post-classical Latin also conversation, discourse (4th cent.), rational discourse (14th cent. in British sources), passage of time (14th cent. in a British source), discharge of matter (1363 in Chauliac (compare discurse n. 1); < discurs- , past participial stem of discurrere (see discourse v.) + -tus , suffix forming verbal nouns), with remodelling after course n. The semantic development was probably influenced by Middle French discors, Middle French, French discours treatment of a subject, either written or oral, treatise, sermon, speech, etc. (c1275 or earlier in an apparently isolated example in Anglo-Norman as descurs in the specific sense ‘talk, conversation’, subsequently from c1430), action of studying a text (1422), application of the mind to something (c1430), spatial movement (a1498, originally with reference to a stream of meteors), narrative, account of events (a1549), process of reasoning, rational thought (1565), sequence of words which constitute an utterance (a1613). Compare Catalan discurs (1490), Spanish discurso (beginning of the 14th cent., earliest in sense 2b), Portuguese discurso (1567; 15th cent. as †descurso ), Italian discorso (a1288, earliest in sense 3a; 15th cent. in sense 4a), and also Dutch discours (1578, earliest in sense 4a), German Diskurs (1517 as discurs , earliest in sense 3a). Compare discurse n.In sense 2c apparently after course n. 3. N.E.D. (1896) gives the pronunciation as (diskō^ə·ɹs) /dɪˈskɔəs/.

Etymology: < discourse n. The semantic development was probably influenced by Middle French discourir (French discourir ) to talk, to converse (13th or 14th cent. in Old French as descourir ), to run, move (over a space or region) (1409), to speak on a subject (1559), an alteration (after courir to run: see current adj.) of Old French descorre , discorre to run, to run about (end of the 12th cent.; already in first half of the 12th cent. in Anglo-Norman as decore , decure , descore , descure , etc. in senses ‘(of liquids) to flow away or out’, ‘(of solids) to melt’; Middle French decourir , descourir ) < classical Latin discurrere to run off in several directions, to run about, (of things) to run or extend in different directions, (of the mind or a speaker) to branch out, to range, in post-classical Latin also to treat of in speech or writing, to discuss, to run through (4th cent.) < dis- dis- prefix + currere to run (see current adj.). Compare discur v.Although quot. 1588 at sense 3b translates an untraced Middle French original, no similar sense ‘to argue or suppose that (something is the case)’ appears to be attested in French. With the β. forms compare discurse n. N.E.D. (1896) gives only the pronunciation (diskō^ə·ɹs) /dɪˈskɔəs/.