course

The English word 'course' entered the language around 1290, from Old French 'cours,' which descended from Latin 'cursus' (a running, a race, a passage, a career).‍​‌​‌​‌​‌​‌​‌​‍​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍​‍​‍​‍​‌​‍​‍​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍​‍​‌​‌​‍ The Latin noun is formed from 'currere' (to run), and it names the act of running and, by extension, the path along which running occurs.

The semantic range of 'course' in English is extraordinary — few words cover so much ground. A navigational course (the direction a ship or aircraft follows), a golf course (the terrain over which a game is played), a course of study (a structured sequence of instruction), a course of treatment (a prescribed series of medical interventions), a course of a meal (one stage in a sequence of dishes), the course of events (the way things develop over time), and 'of course' (naturally, as things run) all descend from the same Latin image: a path of running, a sequence through which one moves from beginning to end.

The navigational sense is perhaps closest to the Latin original. A ship's course is the direction in which it runs through the water. 'To set a course,' 'to hold course,' 'to change course,' 'to stay the course' — all these nautical expressions treat direction as a running path. The metaphorical extensions are natural: a person who 'stays the course' persists along their chosen path despite difficulty, as a ship holds its heading despite storms.

The educational sense — a course of lectures, a university course — dates to the fourteenth century. The metaphor treats a subject of study as a race-course: a defined path with a beginning, a progression, and an end, along which the student runs. The Latin 'curriculum' (literally 'a running, a race-course,' from 'currere') is the same metaphor in more explicit form. To complete a course is to run the full distance; to drop a course is to leave the race.

The meal sense developed in the fifteenth century. A course of a meal is one 'running' of dishes — a set of foods brought to the table together before being cleared for the next set. A formal dinner with multiple courses is a structured progression through which the diners advance, just as a student advances through a curriculum or a ship advances along its heading.

'Of course' (naturally, as expected) is an idiomatic expression meaning 'in the regular course of things' — as events naturally run, as one would expect things to flow. It has become so common that its etymological connection to running is invisible, but the image is there: 'of course' means 'in the natural running of events.'

The compound words built on 'course' form their own constellation. 'Discourse' (from Latin 'discursus,' a running back and forth) is speech or writing that runs from point to point. 'Intercourse' (from Latin 'intercursus,' a running between) originally meant any kind of communication or exchange between people. 'Recourse' (from Latin 'recursus,' a running back) is the act of turning back to something for help. 'Concourse' (from Latin 'concursus,' a running together) is a gathering place.

In modern life, 'course' extends into domains unimaginable in Latin. An online course, a crash course, a refresher course, an obstacle course, a course correction, a course of antibiotics — each applies the ancient running metaphor to a new domain. The word's adaptability stems from the universality of its root image: any structured progression from start to finish, any path one follows from here to there, can be called a course. The Latin runners on their race-tracks could not have foreseen online learning platforms, but the word they used for their running has proven versatile enough to describe them.