discourse

The English word 'discourse' entered the language around 1340, from Old French 'discours,' which descended from Latin 'discursus' (a running about, a running to and fro, a conversation).‌​‍​‍​‍​‍​‍​‌​‍​‌​‌​‌​‌​‍​‌​‍​‌​‌​‌​‌​‍​‌​‌​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍​‍​‍​‍​‌​‍ The Latin verb 'discurrere' combines 'dis-' (apart, in different directions) and 'currere' (to run), creating the image of running in various directions — moving back and forth, covering ground from multiple angles.

The metaphor that underlies 'discourse' is conversation as locomotion. When people engage in discourse, they run back and forth — from one topic to another, from one speaker's position to another's, from premise to conclusion and back again. The image captures the dynamic, multi-directional quality of genuine discussion, which rarely proceeds in a straight line but instead ranges across a landscape of ideas.

In English, 'discourse' has had several overlapping senses throughout its history. The earliest was simply 'conversation' — the running back and forth of speech between people. By the fifteenth century, it also meant 'the process of reasoning' — running from premise to conclusion through a chain of argument. By the sixteenth century, it meant 'a formal treatment of a subject in speech or writing' — Machiavelli's 'Discourses on Livy' and Descartes's 'Discourse on Method' use the word in this sense.

Michel Foucault's use of 'discourse' in the twentieth century gave the word its most influential modern meaning. For Foucault, a 'discourse' is not just a text or a conversation but a system of knowledge, power, and language that shapes what can be said, thought, and known about a subject. Medical discourse, legal discourse, political discourse — each constitutes a framework within which certain statements are possible and others are unthinkable. Foucauldian discourse analysis has become a major methodology in the humanities and social sciences.

The adjective 'discursive' preserves the original Latin sense of running about more faithfully than the noun 'discourse.' A discursive essay is one that ranges widely, moving from topic to topic without following a strict linear path. A discursive thinker is one whose mind runs in many directions. In philosophy, 'discursive reason' (step-by-step logical reasoning) is contrasted with 'intuitive reason' (immediate, non-sequential apprehension of truth). The discursive thinker runs from point to point; the intuitive thinker arrives at once.

In linguistics, 'discourse' has a technical meaning: a connected series of utterances or sentences forming a coherent text. 'Discourse analysis' studies how language functions above the level of the individual sentence — how sentences connect, how speakers take turns, how topics are introduced and developed, how power relationships are encoded in language patterns. This technical sense maintains the image of running: discourse is language in motion, language running from one utterance to the next.

The word's relationship to 'course' is transparent. A course is a path of running; discourse is running in multiple directions (dis-). Intercourse is running between (inter-). Recourse is running back (re-). Concourse is running together (con-). The Latin prefix system generates an entire vocabulary of motion from the single verb 'currere.'

'Discourse' has also been used as a verb since the sixteenth century, though this use is now somewhat archaic or formal: 'to discourse upon a subject' means to speak or write at length about it. Shakespeare used the verb frequently. The verbal form makes the running metaphor explicit: to discourse is to run through a subject, to cover its terrain by moving back and forth across it.

In the twenty-first century, 'discourse' has entered popular vocabulary through social media, where 'the discourse' refers (often ironically) to the ongoing public conversation about a topic, especially a contentious one. 'Did you see the discourse about X on Twitter?' This informal use preserves the ancient Latin image surprisingly well: social media discourse is genuinely a running about — chaotic, multi-directional, circling back on itself, covering the same ground from different angles.